Turkey's pro-Kurdish party condemns Istanbul attack

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) condemned the Istanbul bombings that killed at least 44 people, seven of them civilians, and wounded over 150.

In a press release on its website, the HDP said it condemned the attack “in the strongest terms possible,” sharing the pain of the victims’ relatives.

“Everyone must do what they can to prevent such occurrences from happening again,” read the statement.

The party also called for Turkey to become an example in building peace, democracy, and human rights in its domestic and foreign policy.

Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) claimed the deadly twin bombing that targeted riot police responsible for the security of a high-profile football match in the central Besiktas district of Istanbul.

TAK is a group with controversial ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Speaking at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, HDP’s Istanbul lawmaker Filiz Kerestecioglu said the condemnations would not ease the pain.

The lawmaker added Turkey needed to democratize to get out of a spiral of violence and chaos.

Kerestecioglu noted there had been 20 attacks in Turkey in 2016.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the secularist, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) co-signed a strong-worded declaration of condemnation which the HDP did not condone.

HDP Deputy Co-chair Meral Danis Bestas said her party’s suggestions regarding the content of the joint condemnation were ignored, in a televised Parliamentary session.

Bestas read the HDP’s earlier published statement separately to the Parliament, in which she invited fellow lawmakers to take a role in pulling the country out of more violence.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany