Turkey's MHP leader urges common sense over PKK attacks

ANKARA

Turkish people will never lose common sense in the face of "intolerable” attacks carried out by PKK terrorists, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader said Sunday.

Devlet Bahceli's remarks came after a suicide car bomb attack on Saturday that martyred 14 soldiers and wounded 55 others in the central province of Kayseri.

Speaking to private news channel NTV in Istanbul Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said all signs point towards the involvement of the PKK terrorist group in the Kayseri attack.

"No matter how right we are, no matter how intolerable attacks we are exposed, we will not lose our common sense," Bahceli said on his Twitter account.

He said that the aim of the attacks is to drive Turkey into conflict.

Bahceli said the PKK terrorists wanted to trouble the streets as they failed to do what they wanted on the mountains.

"We cannot be deceived," the opposition leader said.

Referring to attacks on Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) headquarters in the wake of Kayseri attack, Bahceli rejected mob attacks on HDP premises.

"We can not say 'okay' to the attractive invitation of the provocations even if we are hurt. We can not see the arson of buildings right and reasonable," Bahceli said.

The opposition leader said the Kurdish people also suffered from PKK terrorists and would respond to them in the strongest terms.

On Dec. 10, twin bombings claimed by PKK's TAK organization also martyred 44 people, including several police officers, in Istanbul.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year.

More than 300 civilians and about 850 security personnel since have been martyred. More than 9,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended.