The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has condemned in the strongest possible terms a car bomb attack that claimed the lives of at least 13 soldiers and injured 56 others, including civilians, in the central Turkish province of Kayseri on Saturday.
“The bomb that has now exploded in Kayseri has led to many deaths and injuries. We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. … We are greatly saddened by the vortex of violence into which Turkey is being dragged step by step and share the pain being felt,” the party said in a statement on Saturday.
The HDP said the only way to get out of the vortex is to unite against violence and stand up for peace, democracy, justice and freedoms.
The attack in Kayseri came a week after twin bomb attacks outside a football stadium in İstanbul that claimed the lives of 44 people and injured 166.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), an offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), on Sunday claimed responsibility for the twin bombings in İstanbul.
Following the twin explosions in İstanbul last week, police detained dozens of people in raids across the country targeting officials from the HDP over allegations of links to the PKK.