Turkish PM says ‘evil alliance’ behind terror attacks, slams media, academics

ANKARA

DHA photo

An “evil alliance” led by terrorists and supported by media groups, academics and opposition politicians is behind the recent terror attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, vowing to “clear the entire country of terrorists.” 

“There is a treacherous plan behind the recent terrorist attacks. There is an alliance of evil composed of some media, academia, politicians and international actors in support of these attacks against Turkey,” Davutoğlu told his ruling party lawmakers in his weekly address at parliament on March 22. “This is a struggle for our independence and our future. They know that Turkey is the only country resisting plans to re-draw the map in our region,” he added. 

Two consecutive car bomb attacks carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Ankara and two suicide bomb attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which have killed scores of innocent people, have shaken Turkey over the last two months. As the temperature has risen, opposition and independent voices have felt the squeeze from the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

“Axes of evil that aim to put Turkey in a cycle of violence and instability bring these terrorist groups together and also mobilize their civilian elements. Journalists, so-called intellectuals, academics and political parties who have been persuaded to team up with this alliance of evil are mobilized to coordinate a perception management over these attacks,” Davutoğlu said.

He also claimed that terrorist groups are carrying out attacks on Turkey in the knowledge that they will be supported by “international media organization known for their anti-Turkey hostility.” 

“Whenever a terror attack occurs in Belgium or France there is sensitivity in the international media. But when an attack happens in Turkey our government is criticized more than the terrorists,” he said.


‘CHP, HDP support terrorists’

The prime minister also slammed the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Kurdish-question focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for “protecting terrorists.” 

“I should express with sorrow that we have political parties and politicians who are protecting terrorists and terrorist organizations,” Davutoğlu said, directly naming the CHP and the HDP. 

However, he opted to thank the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and its leader Devlet Bahçeli, who offered his support to the government in an official visit in the aftermath of the recent PKK attack in Ankara on March 13. 

“[Bahçeli] displayed a very good example of how to behave at such times … Here is the opposition party stance we want to see, Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu. We hope Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will draw a lesson from this,” Davutoğlu said. 

“We will clear the whole of Turkey of terror. We will protect the interests of this country, even at the cost of our lives. They have never before been able to succeed and they will never ever be able to do so,” he vowed.