Main opposition receiving reports of assassination threats against leader Kılıçdaroğlu

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Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentary group deputy chair Özgür Özel has said that they have been receiving reports of assassination threats against the party leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“We and also the chairman (Kılıçdarğlu) have been receiving these reports. There is not yet an increase in the number of security personnel. We don’t know if there will be any difference when his presidential candidacy is (officially) finalized. They (government) once sent a minister’s armored vehicle, but the chairman (Kılıçdaroğlu) hasn’t accepted it. He is using his normal official car. These threats aim to establish an atmosphere of intimidation,” Özel said on Halk TV on March 10.

Özel recalled that Kılıçdaroğlu nearly escaped lynching by a nationalist group as he was attending the funeral of a soldier in Ankara’s Çubuk district in April 2019. “There were even some (among the attackers) who shouted, ‘Burn this house,’ referring to the house Kılıçdaroğlu was in. None of them (attackers) have been jailed. We are living in such a country. The security forces are also informed about these (assassination threats). It is already impossible that they don’t have the information we have,” he said.

Alaattin Demir, the former head of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves, earlier this week alleged that Kılıçdaroğlu might face an assassination attempt by a “mafia group.”

“I have received reports that there might be an action towards Kılıçdaroğlu through a mafia group. I call on the state officials. I share this information with you without first notifying the chairman (Kılıçdaroğlu),” Aldemir told journalist İsmail Küçükkaya on Halk TV on March 7.