Man mistakes tattoo studio for opposition HDP building in Turkey’s west in armed attack

DENİZLİ

DHA photo

A man in the western province of Denizli staged an armed attack on a tattoo studio on March 21, mistaking it for the provincial building of the Kurdish-issue focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). 

The unidentified assailant fired shots on a shop on the third floor of a building in Gazi Boulevard in Denizli at around 7:00 p.m. He reportedly escaped, shouting “This land is not unowned,” Doğan News Agency has reported.

The bullets hit the signboard of a tattoo studio and there were no casualties in the armed attack.

It was later revealed that the provincial headquarters of the HDP had previously been located in the shop now occupied by the tattoo studio.

Police have started operations to apprehend the fleeing assailant.

The HDP buildings, as well as its local branch buildings across the country, were previously targeted in similar attacks. 

Ahead of the 2015 general election, a large mob staged an armed attack on the HDP headquarters in the capital Ankara.

A total of 13 lawmakers of the party, including its co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, are currently arrested on charges of alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).