Two opposition figures in Turkey have accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of staging “provocations” against the country’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) by erecting controversial billboards in eastern Turkey that imply that it supports terrorism, local media reported on Tuesday.
The billboards, which were erected in Elazığ prior to CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s arrival in the city on Monday to hold his party’s group meeting the next day, quote Kılıçdaroğlu as saying, “I will hang a medal of honor on Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s chest.”
Arrested on Nov. 4, 2016 on terrorism-related charges, Demirtaş, a former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has since then remained in prison despite two European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings in 2018 and 2020 that said Demirtaş was imprisoned for “political” reasons and not for “legal” reasons, ordering his “immediate release.”
The question “Can Kılıçdaroğlu answer for this?” is also asked on the billboards that accuse Kılıçdaroğlu of supporting Demirtaş, and by implication, terrorism.
Commenting on the development, Demirtaş said in a series of tweets that the AKP government didn’t hesitate to engage in “all kinds of discrimination and provocation,” but that the citizens of Turkey, especially his fellow townsmen from Elazığ, would “act with common sense and never be a tool for these provocations.”
His Twitter account is managed by his lawyers.
Kılıçdaroğlu also accused the AKP of staging a provocation. The CHP leader posted a photo of himself in front of one of the billboards bearing his remarks on Twitter, saying, “They decorated the whole place with these to [cause trouble for my] visit to the city. … The sad thing is that while these cheap provocations are staged, no one thinks about what will happen to the broken hearts of our citizens.”
