Main opposition leader blasts Turkey’s human rights violations

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has slammed Turkey’s record of violating human rights, while also blaming President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, without openly mentioning his name, for individuals killed by security forces.

“I can’t stop myself back from asking this question: Between 1946 and 2014, have we been trying to destroy democracy, rather than enhance it?” Kılıçdaroğlu said, speaking at an event organized by Ankara’s Çankaya Municipality’s Contemporary Arts Center on Dec. 11, within the scope of Human Rights Week.

“Can you think of a prime minister who was elected by public votes that can easily confront the nation by saying ‘I gave the order for them to be killed,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, referring to the then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s remarks about civilian deaths during the Gezi Park protests in the summer of 2013.

Recalling Erdoğan’s recent remarks that no police officer had killed or pointed a gun at a civilian, while comparing the U.S. police’s crackdown on recent protests with the Turkish police’s response to social incidents, Kılıçdaroğlu said “456 citizens have been killed with the weapons of the security forces.”

“What kind of a country do we live in? We lynch and slaughter 34 children with our country’s weapons. There is no one responsible. We can’t stand people who think differently, but what a beautiful thing it is to think,” said the CHP, speaking unprompted after watching a video screened at the event to show current human rights violations in Turkey.