HDP delegation seeks entry to southeastern district under curfew

ŞIRNAK

Turkish security forces block the road as a convoy of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) delegates and their leader Selahattin Demirtaş try to make their way to Cizre, on September 9, 2015, in Şırnak. AFP Photo

A delegation headed by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş sought to enter the Cizre district of the southeastern Şırnak province on Sept. 9, on the sixth day of the curfew in the area. 

The delegation was stopped on their way to Cizre as soon as they left the Midyat district of southeastern province of Mardin.

The delegation, headed by Demirtaş along with EU Minister Ali Haydar Konca, Development Minister Müslüm Doğan and other HDP deputies, was stopped on their way to the village of İdil. 

Party officials claimed a military operation in Cizre had cost several civilian lives, with people stuck in their houses due to the curfew.

Recalling the recent attacks on the HDP buildings across the country, Demirtaş called on the protesters to stop attacks on the party.

“There are some among those protesters who think they are backed by the government. They are wrong because the government they think is backing them has fallen,” Demirtaş said at a news conference in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır on Sept. 8.

Demirtaş called on those “who think they are backed by the government” to act accordingly, as he noted that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) would not be able to form a one-party government after the Nov. 1 election.

“It is becoming impossible to hold an election given the security situation in the region,” Demirtaş also said, adding, “We want an election to be held and we are not saying an election can’t be held, but we want the conditions in the region to be improved for an election.”