Davutoğlu must reveal the secrets of 2015

Since the Feb. 28, 2015 Dolmabahçe Agreement, journalists have been closely monitoring incidents in Turkey and remembering them.

During those three dark months from Feb. 28, 2015 to June 7, 2015, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who looks as if he is leading an opposition party now, was the prime minister. As the Kurdish proverb goes, “Unless he has lied down and slept at the ox’s ear,” he must have known not only the consequences of the arrangements of that time, but also the preparation stage.

Unless Davutoğlu explains those days in full, he should not consider a political career. For now, Davutoğlu’s biggest strength is the secrets from that period. As long as he keeps those secrets to himself, he cannot be freed of the chains attaching him to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Before listing the events in chronological order, let me remind you that the following series of events can be illuminated by Davutoğlu, he is not in government right now. However, if these are secrets not only of the government but also Davutoğlu, then it is a different story.

Now to the events.

Feb. 28 to June 7 is a critical period, as it is the preliminary stage of the bloodshed from June 7 to Nov. 1. It is because the peace process did not come to an end suddenly, but happened slowly, between Feb. 28 and June 7. June 7 to Nov. 1 was the preparation stage of the new government structure with its new partner, the Nationalistic Movement Party (MHP).

June 1, 2015

Speaking at the Muş (eastern Anatolia) rally attended by tens of thousands of people, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair at the time Selahattin Demirtaş invited President Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to have a live televised debate. He called on Davutoğlu, saying, “Mr. Davutoğlu, sir, if you are afraid and if you cannot accept the challenge, then call Erdoğan too. Let’s have a debate with both of you. Repeat the lies you are telling at your rallies right into my face: let me see if you are blushing or not.” Pointing to the AKP’s war policies, Demirtaş warned that “If we, as a party, cannot cross the election threshold, then they will instigate bloodshed all around the country; they will siege the country.”

June 2, 2015

1- There were only six days left until the elections, but attacks against the HDP continued. After the Silvan and İdil incidents, HDP members were attacked in the eastern city of Van. According to reports, a group of HDP youths were dancing in a parking lot in the evening when they were attacked by a large group leaving the Hüda-Par (extreme right Islamist party) provincial offices.

2- After the shooting at HDP Headquarters in Ankara, this time the HDP electoral office in the central Anatolian city Eskişehir was targeted in an armed attack. No one was detained in relation to the attack, but HDP members had previously contacted the police about a possible attack.

3- HDP Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ visited HDP former District Co-Chair Cezmi Budak’s family. Budak was killed on April 11 on Mount Tendürek in Ağrı- Diyadin, while acting as a human shield to prevent clashes between soldiers and PKK members during the peace process.

June 3, 2015

1 - Via the peace process, several villages were evacuated by the soldiers. Now, these villages were re-deployed. New checkpoints were formed. There were more raids and detentions than usual. In Şırnak, a southeastern town, 30 people were detained in several house raids and 17 people were detained in nearby Silopi.

2 – In the Mardin, Kızıltepe, JİTEM case, 22 citizens were killed extrajudicially by nine people (four of them soldiers), between 1992 and 1996. The second hearing of the case was held at Ankara 5th Criminal Court with the limited participation of certain plaintiff and defense lawyers. The audio and video connection system (SEGBİS) did not work during the trial. Another judge led the hearing because the original judge was assigned to the district election board. Lawyers protested saying that the flippant attitude of the court was like saying, “The state is killing certain people. You should accept it. These things happen.”

June 4, 2015

Details were revealed regarding the attack on the HDP election vehicle in Bingöl’s Karlıova district. The driver of the vehicle Hamdullah Öge died in the attack. According to reports, the slain driver had more than 30 bullet marks in his body. He is believed to have been taken out of the vehicle, tortured, and then shot. HDP Bingöl MP İdris Baluken said, “We know that anti-terror teams were sent by the AKP government with special instructions for this murder.”

June 5, 2015

1- A HDP rally with a historically large crowd in Diyarbakır was bombed by ISIS. HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş was about to speak when the blast occurred, injuring hundreds of people and killing five.

2- Commenting on the attack at the HDP rally in Diyarbakır, President Erdoğan said, “Everyone should prepare to exercise their democratic right on Sunday elections in the most ideal way without provocations, and political parties should call for peace in their grassroots.” Erdoğan said he had tried to reach HDP Co-Chair Demirtaş to offer his condolences.

3 - The HDP election rally in İstasyon Square in the eastern city of Erzurum’s central Yakutiye district was attacked by AKP members and racist groups, injuring 17 people, one of them seriously. They tried to kill citizen Aydın Taşkesen by pushing him into a burning vehicle.

June 6, 2015

While addressing the public one day after the attack in Diyarbakır, during which a bomb exploded in the middle of hundreds of thousands at an HDP election rally, HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş warned the public to be careful of provocations. "No one should be on the streets our behalf after this. I call on the people of Batman, Cizre, and Mardin. Whoever is in the streets after this time is not ours.”

June 7, 2015

In general elections in Turkey, the HDP was able to cross the 10 percent electoral threshold. HDP Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ spoke regarding the election results. “Now the HDP is an actual political party of Turkey. HDP is Turkey; Turkey is HDP.” Yüksekdağ commented on women’s role in this victory. According to the results later in the night, the HDP victory guaranteed that the AKP would not be able to govern alone.

June 8, 2015

1 - According to official results, the HDP received 6,052,000 votes and won 80 seats in parliament, obtaining 13.1 percent of the votes.

2- Speaking after the AKP’s election defeat, Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan said, “From now on, they will only be able to film the peace process.”

June 9, 2015

1 - HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş spoke to Christiane Amanpour on CNN International. Demirtaş answered questions about the HDP’s vote rate, Erdoğan’s stance in the general elections, the peace process, and foreign policy. Demirtaş said Erdoğan’s stance during the election campaign hampered the peace process. “In the past two years, there was an ongoing dialogue. During the election period, the peace process was frozen due to the attitude of the government, and in particular President Erdoğan. We always said the process had to go on. Abdullah Öcalan said that the groups were ready to lay down their arms and that he would make this call.” Demirtaş suggested that the peace process could restart from where it left, adding that “We will support a peaceful solution regardless of the circumstances.”

2- Aytaç Baran, the president of İHYA-DER, known for its closeness to HÜDA-PAR, was killed in a gun attack in Diyarbakır. The PKK said it had nothing to do with the attack.

June 10, 2015

1 - The executives of the Mesopotamian Lawyers Association, based in Diyarbakır, filed a criminal complaint because of Ömer Turan’s tweets involving hate speech. In a post on June 9, Turan referred to the white colored Renault Toros vehicles, which have been associated with deep state criminal activities for decades, saying, “Renault may have stopped the production of the white Toros series, but I think Toyota pickups can fill this void well.”

2 - After the murder of İHYA-DER President Aytaç Baran, armed groups took to the streets in Diyarbakır. They killed Bayram Dağtan in front of his daughter and shot and killed two more people. Late at night, armed groups shot and killed a man named Fesih Çınar.

3 – Demirtaş strongly reacted to the provocation in Diyarbakır, saying that accusing the HDP of it was “despicable.” He said the president and the prime minister were silent while a civil war was trying to be waged in the country. “There’s no president, there are no ministers. The Interior Minister and the Minister of Justice are silent. They want the country in trouble, and a civil war to break out so that they would be able to say, ‘Sir, look, appreciate the AKP. As soon as the AKP fell, the country has been dragged into chaos.’” DTK Co-Chair Hatip Dicle claimed that ISIS was the subcontractor of the attacks. He said the aim behind the killing of Aytaç Baran was to ignite a war between the Kurds.

June 11, 2015

HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş stated that they were aware of the responsibility placed on them by the people and the electorate after the June 7 elections. Demirtaş said, “We have no personal hatred towards Erdoğan. We are just criticizing the practice of violating the Constitution. We will continue to criticize as long as this continues. We will support all efforts based in human rights and peace during the formation of a possible government.”

June 12, 2015

1 - Selahattin Demirtaş issued a statement in Diyarbakır, at the site of the bombing during the election rally on June 5. Demirtaş said the tension in Diyarbakır that was created by the results of the June 7 election was preparation for civil war and chaos. “Several Hezbollah militants and staff are now in Diyarbakır with arms. A plot has been set up and who is going to shoot who has been decided.” Regarding the bombing of the HDP’s Diyarbakır rally, Demirtaş said, “I’m afraid that DAESH-linked forces are waiting for instructions to take action in hundreds of locations in Turkey.”

2 - After their application to the Ministry of Justice to visit the Imralı Island where Abdullah Öcalan is imprisoned, the members of the Imralı Delegation, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Idris Baluken, and Pervin Buldan, discussed the election results and the peace process with the media. Referring to the election results, Önder said that “The negotiation table that the government overturned for the sake of nationalistic votes has been put back on all four legs by the people.” Noting that they had not been able to meet with Öcalan since April 5, Önder said they were waiting for a response from the Ministry of Justice.

June 13, 2015

1 - Ali Türkman, who was seriously injured in the bombing of the HDP rally in Diyarbakır İstasyon Square on June 5, died at Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital, where he was being treated. With the death of Türkman, the number of people killed in the attack increased to five. Ramazan Yıldız, Necati Kulur, Şehmuz Kaçan and Civan Arslan were killed and hundreds were injured in the attack.

2 - Doğan News Agency reporters Canan Altıntaş, Serdar Sunar and İhlas News Agency reporter Burak Emek were attacked by a group while covering the assassination of İHYA-Der President Aytaç Baran. DHA reporter Altıntaş, who was injured by blows to her face, was taken to the hospital. HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş and HDP deputies from Diyarbakır visited Altıntaş in the hospital.

June 14, 2015

1 - Since entering politics in 2007, Selahattin Demirtaş, who did not want police protection, was assigned two close protection officers. This was reportedly decided after the bomb went off at the HDP Diyarbakır rally on June 5.

2 – After the incidents in Diyarbakır when armed groups organized attacks in the city in which three HDP members were killed and eight others were injured, two of them seriously, perpetrators were brought to court. Six of those interrogated were arrested.

June 15, 2015

1 - The rector of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University did not attend the 7th Mesopotamian Medical Congress in Van on the grounds that one presentation was in the Kurdish language. Ahmet Koç, chair of the Van-Hakkari Medical Chamber, said, “We are disappointed that the rector of a university, which should be the center of science, did not attend the congress attended by renowned doctors and researchers from all over the world.”

2 - Merve Temkin (26) and Mahmut Çelik (38), who were pollsters for the HDP, were attacked by unidentified people with knives in an alley 100 meters from HDP Headquarters. The assailants stabbed Merve Tekin in the foot and Mahmut Çelik in the leg. Several police were dispatched to the area following the incident. The HDP building has been attacked before.

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