Turkish interior minister accuses main opposition CHP of ‘aiding terror’

TUNCELİ

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Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has accused the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

“You [the CHP] are making efforts by causing political instability to give a terrorist organization, which is about to be finished in Turkey, a lifeline of support,” Soylu said in a meeting with village guards on March 1 during a visit to the eastern province of Tunceli. 

“The main opposition is being tricked once again. I’m addressing you here clearly and openly: Those you are with have attempted to take thousands of lives in this country. They have aimed to destroy the unity and solidarity of this nation,” he added. 

Soylu later visited a meeting organized by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Tunceli, where he slammed the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as “a spokesperson of the PKK.” 

Speaking about the June 7 and Nov. 1, 2015 general elections, he criticized the HDP’s stance after June 7, in which the party passed the 10 percent threshold. 

“Did you see the attitude of the terrorist organization’s spokesperson, the HDP? They said ‘From now on, our whistle will be blown.’ They made huge statements. They said ‘We will declare autonomy in our own regions from now on.’ But now we see that the people will not allow you to betray their unity, fraternity and grand civilization. They [HDP] will see what happens. Our dear President [Recep] Tayyip Erdoğan says: ‘I’m here to be a servant of the people, not their master.’ It’s crucial to be a servant of the people,” Soylu said.

The minister also stressed that “the state cannot stand aside and watch as the HDP aids the terrorist organization.”

“You have provided financial help to those terrorist groups from your municipalities. Your party has almost worked like a recruitment organization of the PKK. Will the state stay silent to this?” he added, vowing that the PKK will be “exterminated.”

“With the determination of our president, prime minister and government, with the courage put forward by our security forces, and with the trust that the people have given us, we will exterminate this terrorist organization,” he said, adding that Turkey is “more decisive and powerful in the fight against terror than ever before.”

All people, institutions, establishments, parties and associations should present a “clear stance against terror,” Soylu said.