Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dispelled any illusions that he would revert to his old Reformist self, declaring on Wednesday that there “is no Kurdish problem in this country” and lashing out at one of his oldest lieutenants for defending jailed Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas.

Addressing members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the parliament, Erdogan used language long espoused by the country’s hawkish generals. “They say there is a Kurdish problem. What Kurdish problem? We solved it,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan defended his government’s record in the mainly Kurdish southeast, boasting of the roads and infrastructure that it had built and of its campaign against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule since 1984. 

He justified the forced ejection of dozens of democratically elected Kurdish mayors on thinly supported charges that they were acting in concert with the PKK. “We came to bring peace, and where there is terror, wherever there is a terrorist, we are here to crush their heads,” he said.