Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have rejected a request from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for a parliamentary investigation into an attack on CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.
Kılıçdaroğlu was physically attacked by a group of angry people at the funeral of a Turkish soldier in Ankara on April 21 who was killed by terrorists on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
After the attack, the CHP leader took shelter in a house in the neighborhood with police officers providing security. The house was stoned by a mob and there were even calls to set it on fire.
In its request submitted by the party’s deputy group chairpersons Engin Altay, Özgür Özel and Engin Özkoç earlier this week, the CHP asked parliament to shed light on the attack on Kılıçdaroğlu, adding that statements of Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu show that an effective and independent investigation is unlikely to be carried out by the government.
Soylu said the attackers were relatives of the slain soldier although they were in fact not.
In the request the CHP said there is a strong suspicion the attack was premeditated and that the security forces did not take the necessary measures to prevent it and took no action to stop the angry mob.
However, the party’s request was rejected by the votes of the AKP and MHP deputies in parliament.
The pro-government media have been attacking CHP politicians for making an alliance in the local elections with the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling party depict as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), despite the fact that it is represented in the Turkish parliament.