HDP leader: Davutoğlu’s appearance in Paris rally displays his hypocrisy

ANKARA

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Figen Yüksekdağ has blamed Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for hypocrisy vis-à-vis his reactions against violence committed inside the country and committed abroad.

“Our people’s democratic activity, which it used against ISIL [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] from Oct. 6 to Oct. 8 was turned into a target by the political power on the pretext of disrupting public order,” Yüksekdağ said Jan. 13, referring to street violence in early October that claimed dozens of lives in country-wide protests against the government’s perceived inaction over ISIL’s assault on the Kurdish-populated town of Kobane in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey.

“Mr. Davutoğlu goes to the rally in Paris and expresses his political stance against terror. Mr. Davutoğlu joins rallies against mass murder gangs if it takes place in Paris. However, in Turkey, he sets the police on demonstrators who rally against these mass murder gangs. This is called hypocrisy in Turkish, I don’t know what it is in French,” Yüksekdağ said, while addressing the HDP’s weekly parliamentarian meeting.

“While blaming the West for hypocrisy because of their stance vis-à-vis the Paris massacre, the political power has to face its own hypocrisy,” she added.

Earlier, on Jan. 11, the other co-leader of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş, also criticized Davutoğlu on the same issue and with the same argument used by Yüksekdağ.

“What happened to need to participate in politics at Parliament? Look at him, now he goes to Paris,” Demirtaş said. “If it is us, marching is forbidden, haram and provocation. The gentleman goes to Paris and marches. Do not be deceived by their hypocrisy. Everything is licit and a right for them, when it comes to us, it is forbidden,” he said.