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Turkey
Kurdish security forces stand guard outside Erbil's HuQQabaz restaurant, July 17, 2019. Photo: AA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Wednesday’s Erbil restaurant shooting, in which a Turkish diplomat and two civilians died, must not be used to attack Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the party said Friday after it emerged a prime suspect is related to one of its sitting MPs.
After the Kurdistan Region’s counter-terrorism forces identified Mazlum Dag as a suspect on Thursday evening, it emerged he is in fact the brother of Dersim Dag, the HDP deputy for Diyarbakir and the youngest MP in the history of the Turkish parliament.
The HDP strongly rejected attempts to link the party and its MPs to the July 17 attack, in which a Turkish consular employee was killed alongside two local Iraqi Kurds.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said late on Thursday it is treating the incident as a “premeditated terrorist attack”.
According to a statement released on Facebook by Kurdish counter-terrorism authorities, Mazlum Dag was born in 1992 in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey.
“We strongly condemn this attack,” HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli said in a statement Friday.
“We hope that this unclear, mysterious attack is clarified soon and for no doubt or suspicions over the attack remain.”
“On the other hand, we will under no circumstances [allow] for one of our deputies [to] be targeted due her brother over this attack,” they warned.
The HDP rejects violence, the co-chairs said, accusing political opponents of using the attack to provoke anger.
“They want to attack HDP’s peace policy through this topic, hoping to spread war, fighting and violence,” the party claimed.
Dozens of HDP members and MPs have been imprisoned by the Turkish government in recent years accused of terrorism offenses. Its two former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, have been in prison for several years.
Rudaw tried to contact Dersim Dag to comment on her brother’s alleged involvement in Wednesday’s killings, but she did not respond.
At around 11:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, three individuals pulled up in a Toyota Yaris outside the HuQQabaz restaurant in Erbil’s upmarket Empire World complex, where the Turkish diplomat was dining.
After briefly walking around the area they returned to the vehicle and drove away, before returning half an hour later.
Upon their return, the three individuals entered the restaurant. One took a seat next to the Turkish diplomat’s table while the other two sat at a distance, ordering water, tea, and coffee.
When the Turkish diplomat stood up to pay his check, one of the assailants drew a suppressed pistol and shot him in the head. The diplomat died at the scene.
Two Kurdish civilians, Nariman Othman Ali and Bashdar Ramadhan, were shot by a second gunman, also carrying a suppressed pistol. It is not clear whether they were trying to intervene or escape.
Companions of the Turkish diplomat also drew weapons and began shooting. One of the assailants was injured and limped out of the restaurant. The three individuals returned to their vehicle and fled the scene.
After the Kurdistan Region’s counter-terrorism forces identified Mazlum Dag as a suspect on Thursday evening, it emerged he is in fact the brother of Dersim Dag, the HDP deputy for Diyarbakir and the youngest MP in the history of the Turkish parliament.
The HDP strongly rejected attempts to link the party and its MPs to the July 17 attack, in which a Turkish consular employee was killed alongside two local Iraqi Kurds.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said late on Thursday it is treating the incident as a “premeditated terrorist attack”.
According to a statement released on Facebook by Kurdish counter-terrorism authorities, Mazlum Dag was born in 1992 in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey.
“We strongly condemn this attack,” HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli said in a statement Friday.
“We hope that this unclear, mysterious attack is clarified soon and for no doubt or suspicions over the attack remain.”
“On the other hand, we will under no circumstances [allow] for one of our deputies [to] be targeted due her brother over this attack,” they warned.
The HDP rejects violence, the co-chairs said, accusing political opponents of using the attack to provoke anger.
“They want to attack HDP’s peace policy through this topic, hoping to spread war, fighting and violence,” the party claimed.
Dozens of HDP members and MPs have been imprisoned by the Turkish government in recent years accused of terrorism offenses. Its two former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, have been in prison for several years.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials often accuse the HDP of being the political branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for greater Kurdish cultural and political rights, which is outlawed in Turkey. The HDP denies the allegations.
Rudaw tried to contact Dersim Dag to comment on her brother’s alleged involvement in Wednesday’s killings, but she did not respond.
Rudaw reporter Sangar Abdulrahman was shown security camera footage from the scene of Wednesday’s attack, which provided a rough timeline of events.
At around 11:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, three individuals pulled up in a Toyota Yaris outside the HuQQabaz restaurant in Erbil’s upmarket Empire World complex, where the Turkish diplomat was dining.
After briefly walking around the area they returned to the vehicle and drove away, before returning half an hour later.
Upon their return, the three individuals entered the restaurant. One took a seat next to the Turkish diplomat’s table while the other two sat at a distance, ordering water, tea, and coffee.
When the Turkish diplomat stood up to pay his check, one of the assailants drew a suppressed pistol and shot him in the head. The diplomat died at the scene.
Two Kurdish civilians, Nariman Othman Ali and Bashdar Ramadhan, were shot by a second gunman, also carrying a suppressed pistol. It is not clear whether they were trying to intervene or escape.
Companions of the Turkish diplomat also drew weapons and began shooting. One of the assailants was injured and limped out of the restaurant. The three individuals returned to their vehicle and fled the scene.
The identity of Dag’s two accomplices and the trio’s current whereabouts remained unknown as of Friday.
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