Erdoğan: HDP, Gülen community in a dirty collusion before polls

“They are serving similar purposes … one of them is [doing so] through its militants infiltrated in all state institutions, including the judiciary and the police department. One is slaughtering human beings, the other is slaughtering justice. One of them is targeting our people’s stability and future with bullets, the other is targeting it with plots. They will try to manipulate the upcoming elections to reach their goals but they won’t be able to do this,” Erdoğan said in an “address to workers” on the occasion of the Labor Day. 

The “parallel structure” of followers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen was recently included in Turkey’s top secret security document as a “terrorist organization.” 

“This parallel treacherous gang is hand in hand with the separatist organization, looking for new plots. Their media is praising the party under the control of this separatist organization,” Erdoğan said. The “separatist organization” he was referring to was the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which shares a grassroots with the HDP. 

Accusing the “parallel state” and the HDP of planning a “dirty collusion” before the June 7 elections, Erdoğan called them “diseases born of the same marsh.”      

“They have just one goal: Cutting Turkey’s path to reaching its 2023 objectives. They are working for this not only in Turkey, but everywhere in the world that they have their connections,” he claimed. 

Despite the existence of such plots, the president expressed his confidence that “the people” will vote for “stability and the future of this country” in the June 7 election.

Erdoğan compares Baltimore riots to Gezi

He also lashed out at the “double standards” of the international media regarding the Turkish police’s crackdowns on demonstrators, slamming it for “playing three monkeys” during the recent Baltimore riots in the United States. 

“Media from certain countries almost provoked incidents by their lengthy live broadcasts during the Gezi protests. What we see is that those who conducted smear campaigns against Turkey at that time are now playing the three monkeys. Wasn’t the black man who was killed in Baltimore a human being?” Erdoğan asked. 

No countries issued statements expressing concern about developments in Baltimore and the police violence against demonstrators, he stressed. 

“Look, because their problem is not human rights. In Egypt, death sentences were issued against 2,000 people. Was there any voice from the West? No,” Erdoğan said.