CHP head in Uludere after lynch attempt on governor

ANKARA / ŞIRNAK

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The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) yesterday paid a visit to the district of Uludere in the southeastern province of Þýrnak where 35 civilians were killed in an air strike Dec. 28.

“Some 35 people lost their lives in an undeserved manner. We are going to pursue this. This is not an incident that could easily be forgiven. We are going to pursue this in Parliament as well as in other places,” CHP leader Kemal Kýlýçdaroðlu said in the village of Gülyazý in Þýrnak’s Uludere district, according to the Doðan news agency.

Kýlýçdaroðlu and his aides travelled to Uludere from Van, where the CHP leader spent the New Year’s Eve with victims of the Oct. 23 earthquake.

They were initially supposed to make the trip by helicopter, but eventually travelled by road after the arrangement was cancelled due to what the party described as a “government intervention.”


The allocation of the helicopter “was cancelled without any explanation after what we were told was an instruction from Ankara,” CHP deputy chairman Gürsel Tekin said. “It is hard to understand the government’s obstructions at a time when the main opposition leader is making efforts for internal peace.”

“The government cannot stop us from sharing the pain of our citizens. We are determined to show them they are not alone,” Kýlýçdaroðlu said, before he set off for Uludere. The trip was marred by a road accident as a lorry hit a vehicle in the convoy.”

Hüseyin Yaşar, a member of the CHP’s party assembly, received a slight neck injury, while four other passengers in the car, including deputy party leader Gürsel Tekin and Kýlýçdaroðlu’s assistant Barýþ Bozkurt, were unharmed by the incident, reported the Doðan news agency.

The lorry which hit the car bore an Iranian license plate. According to reports, its driver lost control of the vehicle due to adverse road and weather conditions.

[HH] MHP leader voices PKK suspicions

In a related development, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli stressed the slain smugglers were involved in illegal activity on a route frequently used by the PKK, suggesting they might be linked to the PKK and should not be regarded as completely innocent civilians.

The authorities must “urgently” clarify whether the smugglers were linked to the PKK or to the Iraq Kurds, what goods they carried and whether they were involved in a “network for recruiting militants for the PKK.”

Bahçeli also slammed the harsh reactions the botched raid triggered from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), calling their rhetoric “agitation and provocation.” The government must not step back from the struggle against the PKK, he said.