Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yılmaz, who recently expressed the wish that he would one day end up as a “martyr” at a funeral of a soldier who had been killed by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said on Wednesday that he was sincerely expressing a heartfelt emotion about being a martyr by God’s will.

In his remarks at during a breakfast for the members of the Diplomacy Correspondents Association (DMD), Yıldız also dismissed the allegations of his sons not taking up mandatory military service, adding that they are currently too young to start military service.

After a reporter asked Yıldız whether he would like to be a martyr in Syria or Palestine, Yıldız said, “I have never thought about such a thing, until you asked this question,” adding, “I think every Muslim has this desire of being a martyr one day.”

Yıldız also criticized the people who supported the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the last election, saying that the HDP does not clearly condemn PKK terrorism. He said a police officer voting for the HDP is not democracy, as it is not possible to say that the HDP does not support the PKK.

When a reporter pointed out that the Turkish government had been in talks with the PKK, Yıldız said it is the government’s responsibility to do everything to stop terrorism.