Erdogan’s party is labeled biggest terror organisation

The Justice and Development Party ( AKP) of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip has been labelled the country’s biggest terror organisation, by a prominent member of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party.

The accusation was levelled at the AKP deputies in the Grand National Assembly in Ankara by HDP Ahmet Şık following a heated exchange with the AKP’s Bülent Turan.

The two men had been arguing over the hunger strike by the HDP’s Hakkari city deputy, Leyla Güven, who is the co-president of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), an umbrella organisation for Kurdish political movement.

Turan’s criticized Şık for continually raising the issue of Güven’s hunger strike in the Grand National Assembly.

Turan said Guven had been released from prison and there was no obstacle for her to be in the parliament but had instead continued her hunger strike so that it could simply remain on the parliamentary agenda.

Reacting to Turan’s assertion, Şık turned to the AKP seats in the parliament and said: “The “biggest terrorist organization in the Republican history of this country is AKP and these party members will face trial.”

Turan complained that HDP MP’s always talk about Güven, either at the beginning or before the end of their addresses to the parliament, irrespective of the topic being debated.

“Instead of reminding us of Güven’s hunger strike, they (the HDP MPs) should keep their distance from the terrorists and convince terrorists to stop their activities if they love them so much.”

While the HDP claims that it represents all of Turkey, critics, including the AKP, accuse it of only representing the Kurdish minority and having links to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state and is apart from Turkey, both the European Union and the US have classified it as a terror organization.

Turan also ridiculed Şık for being new in the Parliament and not knowing parliamentary procedures.

Turan criticised pro-Kurdish HDP MPs for never been to the funeral of any Turkish victims of PKK attacks.

He made the comment that for the HDP members, the only victims were PKK leaders. He said the government would never bestow privilege on any groups which have a connection to the PKK and would not allow them to organize a march to support terrorists.

The 54-year old Leyla Guven has been on hunger strike for almost 100 days to protest the isolation of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. She had been in detention from January 2018 on terror-related charges but was released last month. She was taken home in a critical condition after 3 months of being on hunger strike. Despite her release, she has continued her hunger strike.

Öcalan has been serving a life sentence since 1999 on İmralı island prison in the Marmara Sea. The PKK, which is fighting for autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds, took up arms in 1984 and over 40,000 people, mainly Kurds have lost their lives since the start of the conflict.

Dozens of protesters detained by police as they try to gather and support the hunger-strike by HDP’s MP Leyla Güven

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from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/02/15/erdogans-party-is-labeled-biggest-terror-organisation/