Turkey: EU commissioner's 'HDP role key' tweet slammed

ANKARA

Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs Omer Celik has slammed EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn for welcoming the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairman, Selahattin Demirtas, in Brussels.

In a series of posts made on his official Twitter account late Tuesday, Celik criticized Hahn’s remarks about the HDP’s role in Turkey’s politics.

“One cannot help but wonder who are the actors that should distance themselves from violence in Turkey,” he tweeted.

He asked whether the EU commission considered the Turkish state, which was carrying out a legitimate fight against the PKK, as an equal to the “bloody terrorist organization”.

“While EU considers PKK a terrorist organization, HDP rejects to do so. Then we sincerely wonder how HDP will play a key role?” he tweeted.

“If we apply same logic to fight against Daesh, then coalition countries and Daesh should be considered [as] equal actors,” he added.

Earlier, following his meeting with Demirtas Tuesday, Hahn tweeted: “Political solution of #Kurdish issue as crucial as ever. #HDP role key. All actors must distance themselves from any kind of violence.”

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU and resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks martyred more than 600 security personnel and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while more than 7,000 PKK terrorists have been killed in army operations.