Turkish interior minister criticizes foreign envoys at HDP meeting

SAKARYA

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has criticized a group of foreign diplomats for attending a People’s Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentary group meeting on Nov. 8 after its two co-leaders and eight other deputies were arrested on terrorism charges.

“I want you to know that I felt a pang of sorrow in my heart when those ambassadors sat at the HDP group meeting. I said ‘Alas, they are encouraging terror organization’ (the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party),” Soylu said on Nov. 12 speaking at the funeral ceremony of Muhammet Fatih Safitürk, the district governor of the southeastern province of Mardin’s Derik, who was killed in a PKK attack on Nov. 11.

The HDP meeting on Nov. 8 was attended by the ambassadors of Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg, in addition to the Turkey delegation representatives of Austria, Greece, Finland and the EU. 

Earlier, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım had criticized the European representatives. 

“The ambassadors’ duty is not to support separatists, it is to respect the sovereign rights of the country in which they work. We expect them to practice their duties within the framework of their responsibilities,” the premier said.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ had also condemned the envoys for their governments’ failure to show support for Turkey’s battle against “terrorism.”