Main opposition CHP to send delegation to Ağrı after deadly clash

Five PKK militants were killed and four Turkish soldiers were injured in Ağrı on April 11, in clashes that erupted after PKK militants opened fire on security forces, the military said in a statement. The PKK on April 13 denied that its militants attacked first, also arguing that one civilian and one PKK militant were killed in the clashes.

CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu assigned Cemil Erhan, his chief advisor and party’s candidate from Ağrı, to head the delegation in Ağrı on April 13.

On April 12, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş called on opposition party leaders to visit Diyadin to examine what caused the clash, claiming that it was part of a conspiracy ahead of the June 7 election. 

“There wasn’t a clash in Ağrı yesterday, there was a pre-planned, fake operation … There were no ambulances, they carried the soldiers in bed sheets. There is footage of this incident,” Demirtaş said in his party’s first election rally in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district. 

On April 11, he had also accused the military of “provocation.”