Turkish PM accuses HDP of being ‘terrorists’ gladio,’ vows authoritarian public rule

ANKARA

AFP photo

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has harshly criticized the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), describing the party as “the gladio of terrorists.” 

“One of the co-leaders of this party is daring to insult our president and the presidential position by saying ‘all these games are carried out by the Palace Gladio.’ Here I openly declare: All posts in Turkey, including the presidency, are functioning within the constitutional system. But you, you are the elements of the terrorist gladio,” he said, addressing his party’s provincial headquarters.

His remarks came in response to the HDP’s accusation that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was behind “games by the Palace Gladio,” particularly in the case of the July 20 suicide attack on the Amara Cultural Center in Suruç, which killed 31 socialist activists.

The AKP just wants to talk about politics after the June 7 elections, not take security measures, Davutoğlu said, but vowed to “maintain public order verging on authoritativeness if anyone plays the game of chaos.”

Some people conducted “political engineering” in the pre-election period, dreaming of a Turkey without the AKP, where the party would be in the “felon’s dock” and a country where the presidency was isolated, the prime minister said. But after one-and-a-half months, everybody has seen that the “nature of politics in Turkey could not be shaped” without the AKP, Davutoğlu said.  

In a constitutional order, it is not possible to form any government without the president’s consent, he said. 

After the elections, the AKP did not tangle with anyone and did not engage in polarization, he said, while noting that AKP cadres hold the top three seats in the state: the presidency, the prime ministry and the parliamentary speaker’s chair.