HDP strongly condemns Ankara terror attack

ANKARA

AA photo

Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-chair of the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has repeatedly condemned a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 37 people in Turkey’s capital Ankara on March 13.

Demirtaş, whose party is frequently accused by both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the government of siding with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), described the attack as a “massacre that makes the blood run cold.”

“A terror attack that is understood to have entirely targeted civilians was launched. Once more, on behalf of my party and its members, I want to state that we curse and condemn the attack. It was an atrocity that can never be justified for any reason,” Demirtaş said on March 15, speaking at a parliamentary group meeting of his party.

On Feb. 17, after a suicide bomb targeted a military convoy in Ankara and killed 29 people, the HDP did not sign a joint condemnation released by the other three parties at parliament.

On March 15, Demirtaş said the reason for not signing that condemnation was because the text of the joint proposal did not make any reference to previous attacks, including the suicide attack that killed at least 100 people attending a peace rally in Ankara on Oct. 10, 2015. That incident was the deadliest attack in Turkey’s history and was blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The HDP co-chair also stated that his party’s proposal to establish an inquiry commission into the attacks was refused, with objections from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

“A massacre takes place and they say, ‘Let’s draft a joint statement and save our faces.’ Can such cheapness exist? ‘Let’s come together as groups in parliament and release a one-page text ignoring the government’s responsibility.’ Is it the job of a legislator or a party leader to ‘condemn’?” Demirtaş said.