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requesting his final discharge from the party.”
“There was no [pre-determined] provocation in the attack, Soylu stated, indicating that the incident was simply spontaneous. However, the minutes of the Cubuk District Gendarmerie Commandership determined that "the suspects provoked the incidents”.
Criticising Soylu for his remarks suggesting that the assault was not organised but was the result of the resentment of relatives of the martyr given the CHP's alleged cooperation with the HDP, a CHP parliamentary investigatory motion outlined on April 23 how "the fact that a minister made such statements protecting criminals before the end of the investigation gives the impression that there is an attempt to cover up the assault," Erdogan’s Daily Sabah reported.
“The CHP has long been criticised for its unofficial alliance with the pro-PKK HDP. The CHP has refrained from officially including the HDP, which has been condemned for its close ties with the PKK, in its electoral alliance with the Good Party (IP) amid fears of a possible backlash from its secular-nationalist voter base. Some HDP members have been charged with or accused of having links to the PKK terrorist organisation that has been fighting the Turkish state for more than 30 years, leaving more than 40,000 dead,” the daily also noted.
“Pro-government paper @gunes_gazetesi [on April 21] accuses #CHP of supporting terrorism, asking if its new mayor of Istanbul is happy after 4 soldiers were killed by PKK. Daily incitement & vitriol spewed out in government mouthpieces and then vigilante attacks. Not hard to see the link,” BBC Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen wrote on April 21 in a tweet.
“Sad indictment”. “In a climate of dangerous polarisation and demonising one side of this country as ‘terrorists’, #Turkey’s opposition leader @kilicdarogluk has been attacked. A very sad indictment of where Turkey is,” Lowen added in another tweet.
On April 22, Bahceli said: “You think of going to a place, where you have received only 9 percent of votes, to attend the funeral prayer of a soldier... The people of Akkuzulu are tough men with their beliefs and political behaviour. If they were told 'What is this man doing here? Do not let him into this village...' There is an old man on the television, throwing a punch. You, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, what did you do to make this man punch you in the face?”
On April 22, the person who punched Kilicdaroglu was caught in Eskisehir.
Also on April 22, Kilicdaroglu told reporters: “It is organised; it is, in fact, a terrorist attack. It has to be considered in this way. I mean, it should not be considered an ordinary, routine protest... It is not an ordinary, routine protest. It is an organised lynch attempt against a politician.”
“It is not realistic to allege that an organised provocation was staged against a participation that no one knew anything about,” Soylu told reporters.
On the same day, Erdogan finally commented on the attack against the main opposition leader in a tweet but did not offer any consolation: “Unfortunately, some unwelcome incidents took place yesterday during the funeral of one of our martyrs in Cubuk and protests against CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu turned into an act of violence.”
“Journalist from pro-govt paper @DailySabah on the man who attacked #Turkey’s opposition leader @kilicdarogluk: ‘his biggest misfortune was that he was caught on camera’. So the big problem wasn’t that he punched someone, but that he was filmed doing it,” Lowen wrote on April 23 in a tweet.
20 TURKEY Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com