Protesters storm pro-Kurdish party after Turkey attack

Dozens of nationalist protesters on Saturday stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the central Turkish city of Kayseri after an attack that left 13 soldiers dead, images showed.
The protesters broke into the building where the office is located, scattering papers and furniture on the street and removing the HDP sign from the entrance, images taken by the Dogan news agency showed.
A group then ascended to the top of the building, setting off a fire and draping from the top a giant red flag with three crescent moons, the insignia of right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
The government has said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting a bitter insurgency against the Turkish security forces in the southeast, was likely behind the attack.
The HDP denies any links to the PKK but the government accuses the party of being the political front of the militants. Several HDP MPs including its co-leaders are currently under arrest over alleged links to the PKK.
The HDP earlier condemned the attack on the soldiers “in the strongest possible terms.”
But it added: “We have long passed the stage of settling with messages of condemnation. We all must stand together for peace, democracy, justice and freedom against violence, to end this pain.”
Turkish media said that Saturday’s protesters were supporters of the Grey Wolves, a militant wing of the MHP who were hugely prominent in the 1980s and 1990s.
Kayseri is seen as one of the strongholds of the nationalist party in Turkey, although the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made inroads there in recent years.
Meanwhile, angry right-wing protesters also attacked an outdoor meeting of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in central Kayseri, the Hurriyet daily said.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities have detained a woman on suspicion of shooting dead in Istanbul one of the country’s most prominent writers of self-help popular psychology books, reports said on Saturday.
Beki Ikala Erikli, 48, was murdered late on Thursday at her apartment building by an attacker who fired three bullets into her at close range.
A woman named Sinem Koc, 31, was late on Friday detained on suspicion of the murder, the Hurriyet and Sabah dailies said. The suspected weapon was also found.
Istanbul’s Jewish weekly newspaper Salom said Erikli was a member of the city’s small Jewish community. But there is currently no suggestion of any ethnic or religious motive to the killing.
The reports said the suspect had trailed Erikli to the apartment she used as an office and then killed her as she came out.
Erikli was especially known for a hugely popular self-help book named “Living with the Angels.”
On social media, she described herself as an “author and spiritual teacher devoted to enabling everyone to connect to their inner voice, intuition, or angels.”

Source: Arab News