Peace and Democracy Party co-chair warns against violence, provocations

ANKARA - Doğan News Agency

Selahattin Demirtaş speaks during his party's group meeting at the Parliament. Aa photo

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has warned against fresh violence and provocations, in the aftermath of the killing of a nationalist party advisor at a campaign office in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district.

Speaking during a Jan. 28 address to his party group at Parliament, Demirtaş urged Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members to restrain from accusing his pro-Kurdish party for the incident.

“The BDP has [nothing to do] with this [incident]. By [accusing the BDP], the real perpetrators are being covered up. Everyone should be more vigilant. I hope we will be in an election race without other incidents like this occurring,” he said 

Cengiz Akyıldız, an adviser at the MHP’s Istanbul headquarters, died after being shot in the heart after gunmen opened fire on the building shortly after its inauguration on Jan. 26. Seven other MHP members were wounded. 

Officials from the BDP were quick to condemn the attack, as the government moved to tighten security measures ahead of the March 30 polls. 

“We will not come to provocations. We are not a cheap party. We haven’t been the triggerman for anyone and we will not let anyone do it. The MHP and the youth of the party should be very vigilant against such plots,” Demirtaş said. 

The BDP head also touched on the ongoing graft probes, criticizing both the government and the movement of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, which has repeatedly been described as a “parallel state” by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

“The prime minister carries out purge operations on the grounds of fighting a parallel state to bar the graft probes, while the other side is using the graft probes as political blackmail to protect the parallel state,” Demirtaş said.