Turkish minister instructs governors to hinder CHP officials from attending 'martyrs' funerals'

Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu instructs governors to prevent CHP local heads from attending funeral ceremonies, accusing them of backing pro-Kurdish HDP party at elections
Thursday, 28 June 2018 20:42

Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu instructed governors to prevent the parliamentary main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) provincial officials from attending the funeral ceremonies of Turkish security force members.

“I’ve sent a direction to our governors through our undersecretaries. I’ve told them to not allow the CHP local chairs to attend the funerals of martyrs in the protocol,” Soylu said on June 28, accusing the CHP officials of supporting the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) by backing the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) at recent elections.

Accusing the CHP party base for assisting the HDP party in exceeding the ten per cent electoral threshold, Interior Minister Soylu offered the CHP local heads to attend the funeral ceremonies of PKK members, adding that “if they were together at the polls, they will also be together at funerals”.

HEATED GROUP ATTACKED CHP’S FUNERAL FLOWERS AT CEREMONY

Following Soylu’s controversial instruction, today a group tore down the funeral flowers sent from the CHP party during a funeral ceremony of a Turkish soldier in the city of Bursa in an attempt to rise against the participation of the CHP officials in the ceremony. Police removed the funeral flowers away from the ceremony while the heated group was trying to thwart the CHP party.

CHP CALLS ON SOYLU TO RESIGN

Meanwhile, CHP’s spokesperson Bülent Tezcan called on Soylu to resign following his instructions to prevent the CHP officials from attending funeral ceremonies of Turkish army members.  

“The interior minister should resign immediately. He is the greatest danger to the nation. A minister who is responsible for security has become a threat to domestic security,” Tezcan said, accusing Soylu of giving a statement that was “as separatist as the PKK.​

Blaming the interior minister for provoking dark chaos plots, Tezcan argued that Soylu attempted to court favour with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in order to win a ministerial seat at the new cabinet. Tezcan said that they would resort to legal procedures against the interior minister. 

Soylu also admitted that he had called HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan on June 26 regarding the murder of a local grocer in the eastern Turkish city of Ağrı. As 45-year-old Mevlüt Bengi was found shot dead with tied hands, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, “the PKK was thought to be responsible,” considering that the killed man had had a role in organizing an AKP rally in the city.

“Yes, I called Buldan,” Soylu said, confirming the call. The HDP party filed a criminal complaint against the interior minister for “threatening and inciting the people to hatred and animosity”.   

Having joined the AKP party in 2012, Soylu is widely known with his inflammatory statements particularly after he became the interior minister in August 2016 following the failed coup.