Turkey’s Pro-Kurdish Party Blames Govt for Deadly Attack

Supporters shout slogans against the government at a march protesting the arrest of People's Democratic Party HDP parliamentarians in Istanbul, June 18, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

According to the HDP, the man fired several times, damaging the building and then took party staffer Deniz Poyraz hostage and later killed her.

The Izmir Governorate said that the attacker, identified only as O.G., had been detained. "The incident is being investigated from every aspect," the governorate added.

However, HDP officials accused the government of failing to take necessary precautions - and of instigating such attacks.

In a statement, the HDP said the Interior Ministry was responsible for the attack since it has been targeting the party for months. "Those who carried out this very dangerous provocation and the instigators are the government and the Interior Ministry," the statement said.

"Our comrade Poyraz was murdered under the watch of police who guard our provincial building 24 hours daily," the HDP also said on Twitter, claiming that police did nothing to stop the armed attacker.

As part of growing crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, the HDP is often equated with the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, which has been fighting Turkish governments for nearly four decades seeking greater Kurdish autonomy.

Pressure on the HDP and other Kurdish groups has intensified in recent years. Dozens of HDP MPs, including its former leader, Selahattin Demirtas, have been imprisoned on imprecise terrorism charges.

Since the last local elections in Turkey, 59 of the 64 elected HDP mayors have also been dismissed from office on similar grounds, and several have been sent to prison.

The ruling...