Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned calls for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast. "It should be known that we will bring the whole world down on those who seek to establish a state within a state under the name of autonomy and self-governance," the Turkish president said in a speech given on Thursday in the Turkish capital Ankara to supporters of his goal to change the Turkish constitution. "What do we say? One flag," Erdogan declared, according to Hurriyet Daily News, before going on to point out that the Turkish flag is red in honour of the various soldiers who have died preserving Turkey's territorial integrity. His comments come amidst calls for the establishment of autonomous zones in southeast Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its supporters. Those areas have been subjected to harsh military curfews by the Turkish state which is once again at war against the group. Additionally calls for autonomy and Kurdish self-governance by Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, have seen criminal investigations launched against them by the state.
