HDP co-chair says bomber from ISIL

ISTANBUL

AA Photo

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said the assailant who carried out twin bombings against his party’s buildings in southern Turkey was linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) rather than the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

Demirtaş said during a visit to a taxi stand in Istanbul’s Esenkent district on May 22 that the attacks on the HDP buildings were dangerous. 

“[The assailant] engaged in cross-border activities on the Syrian border. A relative of the assailant is a militant for ISIL. This person had lived for a while in an ISIL stronghold. This person, whom they say is from the DHKP-C, has links to ISIL. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) keeps quiet on that but everything points to the AKP, not the HDP,” said Demirtaş.

HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ said May 22 that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s comments on the twin bombings were not true. “Shame on your lies ... The AKP government is behind the attacks.”

On May 18, two separate bombs exploded at two local headquarters of the Kurdish problem-focused HDP in Adana and Mersin, weeks before the June 7 general election. Hidden in a cargo parcel and a gift-packaged flower pot, the two bombs injured four people in total and damaged the buildings.

A suspect for twin bombings of HDP branches in southern Turkey was previously detained in 2007 for his links to the DHKP-C, the Interior Ministry said May 21. 

The same person left the bombs in the HDP buildings in the southern provinces of Adana and Mersin on May 17, a day before they exploded, the ministry claimed in a statement.