Opposition MHP leader urges common sense over PKK attacks

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli said on Sunday that Turkish people will never lose common sense in the face of "intolerable" attacks carried out by PKK terrorists. Bahçeli made a tweet chain on the recent terror attacks conducted by the PKK that targeted Istanbul and Kayseri. Remarking on the car bomb attack on Saturday that killed 14 soldiers and wounded 55 others in the central province of Kayseri, he called on the Turkish people for solidarity against all terrorist organizations, including the PKK, it's Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

Speaking to the private news channel NTV in Istanbul on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said all signs point towards the involvement of the PKK terrorist group in the Kayseri attack. It was the second attack carried out by the PKK in 10 days, as twin bombings on Dec. 10 that killed 44 people in Istanbul were claimed by the PKK's splinter group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK).

The MHP leader also warned about provocations against Kurdish citizens, adding that the Kurds have also been suffering from PKK terror, and that they would respond to them in the strongest term. "No matter how right we are, and no matter how many intolerable attacks we are exposed to, we will not lose our common sense," Bahceli said on his Twitter account.

As the PKK's attempts to bring war to urban areas collapsed due to the successful counter-terror operations, and the lack of cooperation from the people in the region, the organization has introduced a new strategy in their terror campaign, assassinating political figures, most of them Kurdish politicians in southeastern Turkey, who refuse to adhere to their policies. The terror organization also uses its splinter group TAK to carry out suicide bombings in Turkey.

Bahçeli said that PKK terrorists wanted to create trouble in the streets, since they failed to do what they wanted in the mountains, with the aim that the attacks will drive Turkey into a conflict. He also referred to attacks on the People's Democratic Party (HDP) headquarters in the wake of Kayseri attack, rejecting the arson committed on the HDP buildings. "We cannot say ‘okay' to the attractive invitation of the provocations, even if we are hurt. We cannot consider the arson of buildings right or reasonable," Bahceli said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. Since then, more than 300 civilians and about 850 security personnel have been killed, while more than 9,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended.