The Turkish President says Western support of Kurdish forces is abetting terrorism.<br /><br /> Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a university audience in Istanbul he doesn’t care if critics call him “a dictator”.<br /><br /> “They (Western critics) should not concern themselves with trifles. We know well who they are, we have studied their history closely,” Erdogan told the audience.<br /><br /> “I got to know them very well during my 14-year-old tenure as a prime minister and a president.”<br /><br /> “I can now read them like an open book. I don’t care if they call me a dictator or whatever else. It goes in one ear and out the other.”<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> The context<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> Erdogan’s statements come as he cracks down on the PKK militant group and its supporters.<br /><br /> Turkey has drawn international criticism following the detention on Friday of the leaders of the pro-Kurdish HDP, parliament’s second largest opposition party, as part of a terrorism probe. <br /><br /> The government accuses the HDP of links to the PKK, which the party denies.<br />
