CHP blames AKP gov’t for fallen soldiers in Nusaybin

ANKARA

DHA photo

The leader of the main opposition party has blamed Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for every fallen soldier and police officer in the Nusaybin district in the southeastern province of Mardin, as he argued the governor of the city had not allowed security institutions to take necessary measures against terrorists despite intelligence provided about intense preparations for urban warfare in the district.

“I openly say it: Mr. Davutoğlu, you are the one who is responsible for every martyr in Nusaybin. Who might instruct the governor to not give this permission to security bodies? Davutoğlu,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told his parliamentary group on April 5. 

Ongoing clashes in Nusaybin have caused heavy casualties for the army and the police department, as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has turned the city into a massive war zone full of explosives and booby traps. 

It has been argued Mardin Mayor Ömer Faruk Koçak rejected demands to launch preemptive operations in Nusaybin in late 2015 upon intelligence militants were mobilizing in the region. 

“These terrorists have transferred all the experiences they had in Sur to Nusaybin,” Kılıçdaroğlu stressed, recalling that the small Sur district in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır had been a previous venue for the PKK’s urban warfare, which resulted in a high number of casualties. “Who is responsible of this? Who is in power? The CHP? How can a government avoid responsibility? The real [individuals] responsible of these casualties are these gentlemen in Ankara,” he said.

Although these tragic incidents have occurred in the southeast, there is an ongoing plot to try to link the CHP with terrorism, Kılıçdaroğlu said, arguing recent physical attacks on some CHP figures were part of these initiatives. “Those who argue that the CHP has links with terror are dishonorable and infamous. But I am aware of the game behind this. I am aware how this game is played by the palace and its men,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Presidency. 

Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized Davutoğlu for not saying a word to denounce attacks against a CHP deputy and other figures. 


Deepest crisis of the republic

The CHP leader reiterated that Turkey was passing through its deepest crisis ever, as he pointed to a recent disagreement between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Davutoğlu over the fate of the peace process. “It’s not clear who is doing what,” he said. 

In a statement over the weekend, Davutoğlu signaled the government would be ready to return to the negotiation table to resolve the Kurdish issue if the PKK would lay down arms. But only a day after this, Erdoğan challenged the prime minister by underlining that there would be no dialogue whatsoever. 


‘Greatest danger ahead for Turkey’ 

In his comments on Erdoğan’s trip to the United States last week, Kılıçdaroğlu drew attention to the cold reception the Turkish president received in Washington D.C. “Credibility cannot be earned with the magnitude of the palace. One cannot get credibility because he or she sits in a palace,” he said, giving Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey, as examples of credible leaders. 

“How can you make our country so disreputable in the world? You made everything to meet [U.S. President Barack] Obama. Why do you want to meet if he does not want to? The greatest danger in front of the Republic of Turkey is this man’s Presidency, because he can give any sort of concessions,” he said, in apparent reference to Erdoğan.