MHP leader calls Kılıçdaroğlu’s visit to Uludere 'provocative'

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli criticized the main opposition leader’s visit to southeastern Şırnak province last week, saying that the move was aimed at provocation.

“Trying to open crusted wounds is a pure provocation. Whoever dreams of taking out Roboski from Uludere and Kurdistan from Türkiye, their fate will be disastrous,” Bahçeli said in a written statement on Aug. 8.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is “openly attacking the state, recklessly arguing that it is rotten, and he is not content with that as immediately after his visit to Erzurum, he rushed to visit Şırnak’s Uludere to open the crusted wounds, which is a pure provocation,” Bahçeli said.

He criticized Kılıçdaroğlu for using the word “Roboski” and accused him of using “the dirty style of” the PKK.

Bahçeli claimed that the visit of Kılıçdaroğlu to Uludere district 11 years after the tragic incident was aimed at provocation.

Last week, the CHP leader visited the southeastern Anatolian province of Şırnak’s Uludere district, also known as Roboski in Kurdish.

Meeting with the families of the victims, Kılıçdaroğlu promised to shed light on the tragic incident of 2011 there, in which 34 civilians were killed by the Turkish army as they were mistaken for PKK terrorists.

“This pain has to be relieved to let justice come to this country. This incident should be resolved and only after that we can make peace with each other,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Aug. 4.

A total of 34 civilians, who were mistaken for PKK terrorists, smuggling goods into Türkiye, were killed on Dec. 28, 2011, in attacks carried out by F-16s and unmanned aerial vehicles in the incidents. The families and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have long been accusing the government of not conducting a proper investigation into the incident.