Murat Çepni, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP for İzmir in western Turkey, gave a speech during Newroz celebrations in the southwestern province of Mugla on Sunday. The event was attended by thousands who gathered to celebrate the Kurdish new year.
In his speech, Çepni criticised the government’s policies and accused the ruling AKP/MHP alliance of being responsible for the devastation of the recent earthquake in western Turkey, which claimed the lives of dozens of people.
“AKP/MHP fascism, the dirty money alliance, the criminal alliance, which has no policy other than dirty money and plunder, is responsible for the lives we have lost. We will not get used to massacres. We will not trivialise our suffering. We will definitely hold them all to account one by one,” he said.
Çepni also expressed his condolences to the victims of the earthquake and their families, adding that HDP does not share the same pain with the murderers and does not shed the same tears.
He concluded his speech by sending greetings to the HDP members who are currently in prison, saying, “Greetings from our comrades resisting in the dungeons. We send our greetings to them from here. We resist with their courage. We fill these streets and squares with the hope we get from them.“