PM Davutoğlu finds time to attack HDP co-chair Demirtaş over the Ankara massacre after the head of the opposition party accused the state of opening murdering its own citizens

A double suicide bombing in the heart of Ankara that killed at least 97 people on Saturday morning was an attack by the Turkish state against its citizens, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said, taking umbrage with those that suggested it was “an attack on the state.”

“This was not an attack against our state and our nation’s unity; this was an attack by our state against our people,” Demirtaş said soon after the massacre.

Demirtaş’s comments quickly drew the ire of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who frequently takes aim at the HDP. “You saw how [Demirtaş’s] mask fell in front of everyone today with his announcement. What kind of understanding is this that ‘the state did it?'” Davutoğlu said.

“It’s an open provocation, and it’s the same game,” he said. “He’s trying to bring people out onto the streets.”

Davutoğlu said he would be willing to meet Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli to discuss the attack, but not Demirtaş.

Demirtaş was scathing in his response to Davutoğlu’s outburst.

“It’s as if they let loose two suicide bombers with their own hands,” he said. “I [condemn] you for using a language that blames us while threatening us and insulting us while our bodies are still in the morgue and we’re still cleaning up the bits of flesh from the square. You’re not even a prime minister. You’re a clique that has forcibly taken power in a coup.”

Expressing incredulity at Davutoğlu’s suggestion that the government had apprehended a suicide bomber who detonated his device, the HDP co-chair said: “You said, ‘We arrested and meted out justice to Abdurrahman Alagöz [the perpetrator of the 20 July Suruç suicide attack]. Abdurrahman Alagöz was a suicide bomber that was blown to bits there. Who did you catch and bring to justice?”

Demirtaş also criticized the apparent intelligence failures behind the Ankara attack, noting that it was impossible for a “bird to fly without the state’s knowledge” in the capital.

The HDP co-chair further slammed the government over the police’s immediate response to the bombing. “[Two] suicide bombers blow themselves up, and there are injured people on the ground — 500 injured people can’t breathe and his policemen are shooting gas at them on his orders. We have 100 bodies and 500 injured and they’re choking them with gas and water cannon. Is this your idea of justice?” he said.

Sendika.Org, DİHA