BDP asks parliamentary inquiry into Lice attack

ANF – ANKARA 01.07.2013 – Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) asked for a Parliamentary Inquiry in order to investigate the Lice attack in which Medeni Yıldırım, 18, was killed and eight people were seriously wounded in the village of Yakacık on 28 June. The inquiry proposal pointed out that the statements the government has made on the incident caused concerns that the incident will be covered up.

BDP’s inquiry proposal remarked that the ongoing resolution process required concrete and sincere steps for the advancement of the process in a healthy way, and said that “despite the withdrawal of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) units (from Turkish borders), the government is practicing war period’s decisions in the resolution process. BDP said the government’s aggressive and intolerant attitude towards Gezi protests and other democratic protests, going on to cause deaths, has remarkably betrayed the trust in the government concerning the resolution process. Indicating the Lice attack as the most recent consequence of this attitude, BDP remarked that the government officials’ statements on the incident, that contradicted the statements of eye witnesses and completely distorted the truth on the incident, led to the emergence of considerations that the government took a deliberate part in the bloody attack.

BDP said the statements from the government’s side, those which claimed that soldiers opened fire into the air and protestors opened fire on soldiers” contradicted the reality. “This statement is an explicit manifestation of the fact that this attack will also be covered up, just like all massacres people have suffered from the hands of the state forces for the last thirty years”, it said.BDP pointed out that a parliamentary inquiry into Lice attack would be the single way to launch an urgent investigation into the incident, and to ensure the trial and punishment of those responsible.