Turkey: PKK blamed for attack on main opposition leader

Turkey: PKK blamed for attack on main opposition leader
By Euronews
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Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu escaped unhurt on Thursday after his convoy came under fire in the northeastern Black Sea province of Artvin.

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Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu escaped unhurt on Thursday after his convoy came under fire in the northeastern Black Sea province of Artvin.

The government has blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdish PKK militant group.

Kilicdaroglu escaped injury but a soldier was killed and two others wounded. Some reports say the violence was linked to clashes in the area rather than a targeted attack.

One soldier killed in attack on Turkish main opposition CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu’s motorcade https://t.co/Pi6SyhbZPIpic.twitter.com/AdYy1J5RPl

— Hürriyet Daily News (@HDNER) 25 août 2016

Kilicdaroglu heads the CHP, the party of the secular Turkish republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

But at a rally of more than a million people in Istanbul earlier this month, he stood shoulder to shoulder with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, co-founder of the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party, in a show of unity following July’s failed coup.

Turkish media reports say Erdogan telephoned Kilicdaroglu to wish him well, after the attack.

Erdoğan, politicians call Kılıçdaroğlu after he survives PKK attack https://t.co/aK9aFNyZEVpic.twitter.com/UoilpnCJGB

— Hürriyet Daily News (@HDNER) 25 août 2016

Typically, even convoys of top opposition figures are accompanied by a police escort in Turkey, which has faced a series of bombings and other attacks in the past year, raising tensions in a nation with a long border with Syria and Iraq.

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