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HDP lawmakers collaborating with terrorists: Davutoglu

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 2, 2016 4:33PM

Turkey's prime minister has once again lashed out at the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), accusing its lawmakers of working with 'terrorists.'

Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday that members of the opposition HDP, the third-biggest party in the Turkish parliament, have sought to drag the country into chaos.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports legal action against members of the HDP. He has already called for the removal of the immunity of Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, the two leaders of the HDP over their recent calls for autonomy.

He also accuses the HDP of backing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s and is branded as a terrorist organization in Turkey. The pro-Kurdish party, however, denies the accusation of being an extension of the PKK.

Back in February, Demirtas said in an interview with the Greek Efimerida Ton Syntakton newspaper that the Turkish army is cooperating with two extremist groups in Syria and is protecting militants as well as al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front Takfiri group operating inside the Arab country.

Ankara is accused of actively training and arming Takfiri elements and buying smuggled oil from territories held by Daesh terrorist group in Syria.

Elsewhere in his comments, Davutoglu said Ankara is planning to make it easier for civilians to leave areas under curfew in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, which has been the scene of deadly clashes between the army and PKK militants over the past several months.

Authorities say the curfew is in place to help them root out PKK militants. However, activists argue that clashes have led to the death of civilians and inflicted major damage to the area's historic mosques and other buildings.

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.