The committee made up of HDP Deputy Co-chair Ayşe Acar Başaran, MPs Meral Danış Beştaş, Nimetullah Erdoğmuş and Sibel Yiğitalp, Urfa parliamentary candidates and DBP Deputy Co-chair Hacer Özdemir went to Suruç, Urfa and held a press conference in the HDP Suruç offices.

Politician Nimetullah Erdoğmuş gave his condolences and said: “The incident in Suruç is not a conflict between families or parties. The government must rectify this language. As MPs were visiting shopkeepers, tensions rose when a shopkeeper of 25 years spoke of his own views. Deceiving Turkey’s public is as dire as this incident itself.”

“AKP IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE”

Meral Danış Beştaş said: “We are facing an incident where the AKP government is directly responsible. All media organs are using the government narrative in their reports. We know these incidents very well. There was a massacre in Suruç on July 20, a bomb went off during our rally in Diyarbakır on June 5, and all these happened during AKP governments and election cycles. The AKP’s rap sheet is that bad.”

“It is impossible to think of this incident independent from the government. There is the government on one side, and the people on the other,” stressed Beştaş and continued: “We want to state very clearly that this incident was prepared as a great provocation 10 days before the elections. They polarized society to this extent becaue the HDP was voiding their ploys, and now there is blood. The person responsible for this is Erdoğan, who constantly targets us, and his use of language conducive to attacks.”

“THEY WANT MANIPULATION”

Beştaş stated that the people who visited shops while armed were those who planned the incident: “Before we could even find out who died, the media started to run stories saying the PKK attacked the AKP. This is not normal. This is the language they use to cover up their own attacks. This is geared towards manipulating the public.”

“HAPPENED AFTER ERDOĞAN’S ORDERS”

Beştaş asked, “What are the soldiers doing in the city?” and added: “Erdoğan said the HDP must be pushed below the threshold, and Suruç happened. They won’t break the will and strong stance of the HDP. We will continue to tand with our people, always.”

Beştaş demanded that the prosecutor’s office collect evidence before it’s tampered with:

“They say the PKK attacked AKP members. These people are crazy! So the AKP MPs are visiting PKK members to ask for their votes? You go asking a shopkeeper of 25 years to vote for you, and then you fabricate such a lie. Their time will be up on June 24, they will have their answer, but what ails us is the loss of life.

CALL FOR THE PEOPLE

We are also calling on our people that we know they won’t fall for these provocations. We know that this was aimed to stop us, and we will continue with our efforts after the condolences.

The AKP has been caught red handed. They now understand that they can’t get away with burdening the HDP and the Kurdish people with what they themselves did. If the Minister of Interior Affairs, Prime Minister and Vice President speak within the hour, the public knows that these people have been caught red handed again.”