Opposition condemns Nice attack, calls on gov’t to critique its own foreign policy

“The incident in France is a typical example of the point terrorism has arrived at and how terrorists are merciless. Just think over this: You no longer need to use bombs or obtain long-barreled weapons to open fire at people. If you have a plan, you just get a truck and drive into a crowd,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), told reporters before his party assembly meeting on July 15. 

“You [terrorists] choose hundreds of innocent people, including children and elderly people [as targets]. The entire world must now observe the level terror has reached and exert joint efforts to fight against terror,” he said. Kılıçdaroğlu also condemned the attack and offered condolences to the people of France. 

The link between Turkey’s foreign policy choices and the anti-terror fight must be better read by Turkish officials, he urged. “We all now see that intervening into the internal affairs of other countries and transferring people from other countries to the Middle East via Turkey not only brings tragedies to Turkey but to the whole world,” he said.

For Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkey could best fight against terror if the government underwent a serious and sincere change in its overall policies, as he said, “This understanding [of the government] has dragged Turkey into the terror swamp step-by-step. We must get rid of this.”   


HDP: ISIL may be behind the attack

Meanwhile, a written statement signed by Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, the co-leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), strongly condemned and cursed the terror attack, while also claiming that initial evidence suggested the incident could have been conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

“The fact that ISIL and similar other slaughterer organizations are be able to carry out such inhumane attacks in Turkey, France and other leading world centers shows that sovereign powers and political rulers who have supported these structures should also be counted as responsible for these incidents,” read the statement. The HDP also proposed the launch of an international investigation into global terror crimes.