CHP Calls On Turkish Interior Minister To Resign After Attack On Opposition Leader

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu must resign in the wake of the attack on the leader of the Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, CHP deputy parliamentary group head Engin Ozkoc said on Monday

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd April, 2019) Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu must resign in the wake of the attack on the leader of the Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, CHP deputy parliamentary group head Engin Ozkoc said on Monday.

Kilicdaroglu was attacked on Sunday by a group of people in the Cubuk district of Ankara. The incident took place during a funeral of a Turkish soldier who was killed during military operations on the Turkey-Iraq border. Many people attended the ceremony, during which a group of aggressive men surrounded the politician, with tensions rising very quickly. Some of the attackers tried to approach Kilicdaroglu making aggressive movements and chanting slogans against him. The guards managed to push the attackers away and the politician was not injured in the incident.

"It was an obvious provocation, and the goal was to kill Kilicdaroglu ... Our party is accused of having links with terrorists. You can find anyone in our [party], from doctors to engineers, but you will not find terrorists.

Interior minister Soylu must resign due to the state of emergency. He is trying to link us with terrorists and he is personally responsible for inciting sentiments against our party," Ozkoc told reporters in Ankara.

Earlier on Monday Soylu announced the detention of nine people over the mob attack on Kilicdaroglu. He insisted that the man who tried to hit Kilicdaroglu "turned out to be a relative of the killed officer."

During the campaign held in Turkey on the eve of the municipal elections on March 31, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly accused Kilicdaroglu of supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey designates as a terrorist group.

The CHP managed to gain more votes that the president's Justice and Development Party during the elections in Ankara and Istanbul. Mansur Yavas from CHP has been recently sworn as Ankara mayor. Another CHP politician, Ekrem Imamoglu assumed the mayoral post in Istanbul last week.