Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that his government is determined to continue to work with the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) to end the longstanding Kurdish problem.

Speaking during the provincial congress of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in eastern Van province, Davutoglu said the settlement process conducted by the AKP and the PKK will continue, but the government will not submit to vandalism and violence, local Todat's Zaman reported on Sunday.

Turkey's unwillingness to help Kurds in the Kurdish-populated Syrian city of Ayn al-Arab, also know as Kobane, prompted Turkey's Kurds to stage protests against the government in over 30 provinces.

Referring to the protests in many provinces in Turkey in October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that "If you caused the killing of 40 people on the streets, you have nothing to do with a peaceful solution (to the Kurdish problem)."

Stressing that public order cannot be traded for the settlement process, Davutoglu also said the government will take necessary measures to ensure security and peace for its people.

The imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan last Sunday insisted on legal guarantees to safeguard the settlement process to the Kurdish issue.

He pointed out that a solution to the decades-long conflict could be reached within four to five months if the process is handled with seriousness and commitment.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and other countries, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland for the Kurds in southeast Turkey. Since then, more than 40,000 people were killed in conflicts involving the group.

The Turkish authorities started peace negotiations with the PKK in October 2012, which led to a cease-fire in March 2013, but PKK fighters started to return to their strongholds in northern Iraq in May last year.

Source:Xinhua