Co-chair of Turkey's left-wing, Kurdish-led Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has told the media that the Turkish government had transformed into a perverted cult that bombs mosques and massacres civilians.
Demirtaş made the comments on a visit to the vigil for jailed academics in Bakırköy Women's Closed Prison on April 26.
Co-chair of Turkey's left-wing, Kurdish-led Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has told the media that the Turkish government had transformed into a perverted cult that bombs mosques and massacres civilians.
Co-chair of Turkey's left-wing, Kurdish-led Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has told the media that the Turkish government had transformed into a perverted cult that bombs mosques and massacres civilians.
Demirtaş made the comments on a visit to the vigil for jailed academics in Bakırköy Women's Closed Prison on April 26.
Co-chair of Turkey's left-wing, Kurdish-led Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has told the media that the Turkish government had transformed into a perverted cult that bombs mosques and massacres civilians.
Demirtaş made the comments on a visit to the vigil for jailed academics in Bakırköy Women's Closed Prison on April 26.
He also criticised the jailing of four academics who signed a peace petition, which insisted “We will not be a party to this crime” in relation to the Turkish government's escalating war on Kurdish civilians, and called on Turkish society to raise its voice for peace.
Demirtaş said: “Four academics are in jail for demanding peace. People who should be receiving peace prizes are in prison, whereas people such as some government officials who should be in jail are free.”
Demirtaş noted that freedom of speech and press were the prerequisites for all other freedoms, and said: “The AKP government is attacking these two freedoms because it is afraid that its crimes, its support for ISIS and its massacre of civilians will be exposed.”
Demirtaş also criticised mainstream media outlets for their biased coverage and censoring of his party's demands for peace.
The co-chair of the HDP — which has 59 out of 550 seats in parliament and whose surge in elections last year denied the ruling AKP its desired two-thirds majority — also commented on recent developments regarding the lifting of parliamentary immunity. He said the other three major parties in parliament “only unite when it comes to anti-Kurdish positions such as lifting the immunity of HDP parliamentarians”.
Demirtaş also touched on the recent rape scandal surrounding the Islamist education charity Ensar and its links to the AKP government. Condemning President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's provocative statements targeting academics, students, journalists and other groups, Demirtaş described the AKP leader's silence on exposed rapists as “an attempt to protect and reward rapists for his political aims”.
Demirtaş said the AKP had “transformed into a perverted cult”, whose members failed to publicly criticise rapists in education institutions. Instead, they sought to hide their crimes by turning attention on the HDP.
Demirtaş noted that Erdoğan had hundreds of paid journalists, and criticised the double standard of mainstream media when it came to criticising the government.
He emphasised that Erdoğan was scared of calls for peace, stating: “The AKP is becoming happier as more blood is spilled and citizens die … Erdoğan has been pushing so hard for the presidential system because he is aware that the AKP's crimes against humanity are exposed and its time in government has come to an end …
“The AKP government has been bombarding mosques and murdering civilians in the region.”
Demirtaş said: “Government officials are lying to the public about the ongoing military operations … We are calling on Turkish society to raise its voice for peace and end the ongoing war.”
[Reprinted from Kurdish Question.]
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