December 28, 2015•Update: December 28, 2015
ANKARA
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Republican People's Party (CHP) have lashed out at the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for demanding autonomous regions in Turkey's southeast region.
The CHP, MHP and HDP are all Turkish opposition parties that have representation in the country’s parliament.
On Sunday, the HDP called for the formation of "democratic autonomous regions" as one of its 14 items in the final declaration of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) in southeastern Diyarbakir province.
Reacting to this call, MHP Secretary General Ismet Buyukataman alleged that the HDP was a political representative of the terrorist organization PKK.
In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency Monday, Buyukataman said: "The political representatives of the terrorist organization are being impudent".
He claimed that the recent situation showed that the HDP could never be “Turkey's party”, a title which the party declared as its motto and vision during the last two parliamentary elections.
"They can neither understand being Turkey's party nor living brotherly together with our 78 million citizens nor the sensitivity of the nation on the country's indivisible integrity," he said.
He alleged that HDP officials had become so reckless that they now question the unitary structure of the Turkish state and the description of a Turkish citizenship, adding they were being careless in talking about “democratic autonomy”.
He also expressed his party's support for future legal steps by the government to eradicate terror.
"As MHP, we will support if there will be a sincere legal regulation," he said.
MHP Group Acting Chairman Oktay Vural told a press conference at the parliament that HDP had dared to change the state's unitary structure with its 14-item communique.
"They obviously declared [their bid for] Kurdistan, a separate state and division. We will never allow a shanty to be built within the Republic of Turkey," Vural said.
"Our nation will also react to the dreamers of Kurdistan under the name of self-governance, autonomy and initiative," he added.
CHP Deputy Chairman Mehmet Bekaroglu told Anadolu Agency Monday that his party too disapproved and found strange the remarks of HDP Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtas on autonomy.
"HDP and Demirtas must support the parliamentary platform, peaceful means and democratic methods. The platform to talk over and solve these issues is the parliament," Bekaroglu said.
"Nothing like 'We've declared de facto autonomy' is possible anywhere in the world, they also know it very well," he added.
A counter-terrorism operation has been continuing in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Sirnak and Mardin, with curfews declared to fight the terrorists nested in houses abandoned by many citizens.
As part of the operation, around 210 terrorists from PKK have been killed since Dec. 15, according to Turkish General Staff.
A curfew was imposed on Cizre and Silopi on Dec. 14. Many citizens left the district before the curfew, which became the scene of clashes between security forces and PKK terrorists.
The PKK – considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU – resumed its armed campaign in late July.
Since then, more than 200 members of the security forces have been martyred and over 1,700 PKK terrorists killed.
