HDP Co-president Selahattin Demirtaş made a speech at a solidarity dinner organised by the HDP’s Ankara branch at the Neva Palas Hotel, saying what took place in Ağrı on 11 April was an election provocation by the AKP government.
HDP Co-president Selahattin Demirtaş made a speech at a solidarity dinner organised by the HDP’s Ankara branch at the Neva Palas Hotel, saying what took place in Ağrı on 11 April was an election provocation by the AKP government. Demirtaş said: "Every day they are losing votes. People do not believe them anymore. So what do they do? They do things like in Diyadin. In order to gain votes they pit soldiers against the PKK and use it as election propaganda at an election rally.”
Demirtaş condemned the statement made by the governor of Ağrı, saying: "The PKK is on ceasefire. The soldiers know where they are. Then they set up an ambush and claim that the PKK were intending to force people to vote for the HDP.”
'To increase their vote they showed live coverage of the military operation at the rally’
Demirtaş said the news from Diyadin was serious, and that Cezmi Budak had died. He added that the AKP had shown live coverage of the military operation at an election rally. He said the governing party wanted to use nationalism to secure votes, adding that this was a perilous thing to do.
'We will continue to call for peace'
Demirtaş said they would continue to call for peace, despite all manner of provocation. "The soldiers pitted against the PKK are our children, just as the PKK members are our brothers. All tyrants behave like this when they begin to lose power. There is a bloodbath in the Middle East,” he added, accusing the General Staff of carrying out fake operations in Siirt, Hakkari and Şırnak to benefit the AKP.
'They carried out the operation after Bayık's statement’
Demirtaş recalled the previous day’s statement of KCK Co-president Cemil Bayık saying: "We don’t want to fight,” adding that the operation in Diyadin had come immediately after this.
“They say: ‘don’t vote for a party that is nourished by arms, but it is the governing party that is nourished by arms,” said Demirtaş, who called on the mothers of police and soldiers to not be deceived by this propaganda. He asked them not to fall into the trap of polarisation and instead opt for peace.
