Turkish PM Erdoğan ignores soldiers killed by PKK, MHP leader says

ANKARA

AA Photo

An opposition party leader has accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of “ignoring” terror causalities when he recently addressed the families of three soldiers killed in Turkey’s southeast, reportedly in clashes with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Three Turkish soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants on the Syrian border earlier this week.

Speaking at a press conference on July 24, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli criticized Erdoğan for saying at a recent fast-breaking iftar dinner for families of slain soldiers that there had been “no martyrs’ funerals” for a long time.

“How can Erdoğan lie so much?” Bahçeli said, accusing the prime minister of “trying to acquit the PKK” for the killings that took place in Şanlıurfa. The MHP head also warned that a possible Erdoğan presidency would be “one of the worst in Turkish history.”