Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş offers his condolences over bomb blasts that killed 97 people at a peace rally in Ankara. (Photo: DHA)
Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chairman Selahattin Demirtaş has confirmed the allegations that a group of militants affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) recently infiltrated Turkey aiming to assassinate him.
“We received intelligence from reliable sources that there were plans to plot an assassination against me. We have tried to tighten security and of course share this information with the authorities. But it [the government] is busy protecting ISIL rather than us,” Demirtaş told the press on Wednesday.
According to several media outlets, HDP Deputy Chairman İdris Baluken submitted a petition to the Interior Ministry on Aug. 5 which claimed that a group of militants affiliated with ISIL infiltrated Turkey aiming to assassinate Demirtaş.
In the petition, the HDP stated: “According to reliable sources, a group of militants from ISIL entered Turkey in order to assassinate our co-chairman, Selahattin Demirtaş. Currently we do not have any further information regarding the identities of the militants. Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter.”
The Interior Ministry has reportedly failed to respond to the HDP’s petition.
Reporter who foresaw Ankara bombings: ISIL will assassinate Demirtaş
Terrorist organization ISIL is plotting an assassination against HDP Co-chairman Demirtaş, according to Hikmet Durgun, a reporter for Russian news agency Sputnik who foresaw the twin bomb blasts that killed at least 97 people in Ankara on Saturday, in tweets he posted a few days before the attacks took place.
“ISIL is going to assassinate Selehattin Demirtaş in order to get revenge for Kobani. The militant assigned this duty was sent to Turkey,” Durgun tweeted on Wednesday.
What makes his tweet important is that Durgun reported on Sept. 29 that a total of 100 militants had infiltrated Turkey to carry out attacks in major provinces including Ankara and İstanbul and to give military training to ISIL members and sympathizers in Turkey.
The reporter also wrote that 100 militants had dispersed to the provinces of Adana, Adıyaman, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Kilis, Konya and Şanlıurfa after crossing Turkey’s border from Syria in groups. The militants were instructed to avoid unnecessary communication by phone. In addition to arms training, ISIL members and sympathizers in Turkey will also be taught to make bombs.
Durgun complained in a tweet he posted on Tuesday night that even though he reported the Ankara attack would take place, officials failed to take any security measures.
“I reported the infiltration of 100 ISIL militants into Turkey. But no security measure was taken. Terrifying! The ISIL threat still continues. I will continue to tweet about threats,” Durgun said.
A total of 97 people were officially pronounced dead on Sunday night, having lost their lives in the country’s deadliest terrorist attack in Ankara on Saturday. Over 500 people are among the injured, with dozens of them in critical condition. Initial indications suggest that ISIL is responsible for the twin bombings, two senior Turkish security sources told Reuters on Sunday.
The AK Party administration had long been criticized for allegedly turning a blind eye to the passage of foreign fighters, many coming from European countries, to war-torn Syria with intentions to join ISIL. Ignoring warnings from many experts that a lack of border security might one day spell trouble for Turkey, the AK Party government has long maintained its policy of neglecting the necessary measures of precaution at Turkey’s borders.
When a bomb attack shocked Turkey in the southeastern border town of Suruç on July 20, the AK Party shifted its stance regarding ISIL, which was held responsible for the attack that killed 34 civilians who were on their way to reconstruct a city that had been ravaged by the terrorist group.
Within a week of the Suruç bombing, Turkey agreed to grant the US expanded access to İncirlik Air Base, located in the southeastern province of Adana, close to Syria. By late August, Turkey had joined the air strikes being conducted on important ISIL targets in part of a US-led coalition, which Turkey had previously declined to participate in.