Four dead, over 150 injured in blasts at pro-Kurdish party rally in Turkey
Explosions tear through crowds of People’s Democratic Party supporters in Diyarbakir, two days ahead of elections
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — At least four people were killed and over 150 wounded in explosions Friday at a rally by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in southeastern Turkey, adding to tensions two days ahead of tight legislative polls.
The two successive blasts rocked the rally in the city of Diyarbakir of the HDP, which has been the target of repeated attacks in a tightly-fought campaign.
Ambulances arrived at the scene to take the injured away, with chaos on the square where the rally was due to be held, an AFP correspondent said. The explosions were reported at five minutes apart, with the first occurring out of a trash bin and the second in front of a power generator, according to a report in the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.
Initial reports said that the explosions were blamed on an electrical transformer at the rally.
However Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in televised comments that the nature of the damage indicated that the blasts had likely been caused by an external factor.
“It suggests there was an outside agent,” he said, without giving further details.
According to the Turkish press, over 150 people were injured in the blasts, with medical sources reported that at least 25 of them were in serious condition.
Eight people were undergoing emergency surgery, they added.
‘Beware of provocation’
Some activists threw stones in anger at the police. Security forces used tear gas and water cannon to clear the area.
HDP officials also told supporters through loudspeakers to leave the scene as the rally had been cancelled.
The HDP’s leader Selahattin Demirtas had been due to address the rally, which had mustered tens of thousands of supporters before the explosion.
The rally was to have been one of the HDP’s key campaign events — Diyarbakir is the most significant city in the Kurdish-majority southeast that is the bedrock of its support.
Speaking at a rally in the southern city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed his condolences to the injured and vowed a swift investigation.
“We will achieve results in the swiftest possible time over whether this is an attack or some kind of provocation,” he said.
He appealed on citizens of Diyarbakir, one of Turkey’s most volatile cities, to stay calm and “beware of provocations”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said the explosions were a “provocation” aimed at undermining calm before elections. In a statement released to the press following the incident, Erdogan sent his condolences to the affected families.
Demirtas urged calm, saying the aim was to carry out an “explosion and then spread the clashes all over the city.”
“All our friends should very careful and not to give in to provocation,” he added.
Dozens of people had been killed in the southeast and across Turkey in October 2014 in pro-Kurdish protests over the government’s policy in Syria.
He also tweeted: “Peace will win” and the Turkish phrase #Bariskazanacak (#Peacewillwin) rapidly became a trending hashtag on Twitter.
‘Clear the threshold’
Clashes at the HDP’s rally in the eastern city of Erzurum on Thursday left dozens wounded and a driver with severe burns after his vehicle was set alight.
Earlier this week, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a HDP campaign bus in the Kurdish-majority eastern Bingol province, killing the driver.
In May, two blasts targeting HDP’s headquarters in the southern cities of Adana and Mersin injured several people.
In a tight campaign, the HDP is battling to exceed the tough 10 percent threshold required in Turkey to send MPs to parliament.
Should it succeed, the presence of HDP MPs could stymie plans by the ruling party to agree a new constitution to hand more power to Erdogan.
“We will do these elections and we will clear this threshold,” he said.
In this election, the HDP has tried to broaden its appeal beyond its natural Kurdish base in the southeast to secular Turks, women and gays.
Meanwhile, the AKP has sought to blacken the party’s name by claiming it is a front for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has led a bloody separatist insurgency in the region for decades.
