ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Police detained a man Tuesday who injured a person during a knife attack at an Istanbul branch of a party that backs the Kurds, Turkish press reported.
The attacker entered the office of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in the Bahcelievler district in Istanbul and threatened to kill everyone inside the building before injuring one person, according to the Cumhuriyet newspaper.
It was the second attack this year on an HDP building. In June, a gunman broke into HDP offices in western Turkey’s Izmir province and killed a female employee.
Recalling the attack on its building in Izmir, the HDP tweeted that Tuesday’s attack “was not an isolated one.”
“These attacks cannot intimidate us,” the party said. “Our people respond most forcefully by protecting their party and will continue to do so.”
The HDP, the second-largest opposition party in the Turkish Parliament, is under widespread government crackdown, and party members are being accused of supporting the outlawed Kurdish militia group. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called party members terrorists.
Thousands of activists who support the Kurds, as well as legislators and former party leaders, have been jailed.
The HDP is also appealing a legal action seeking its closure for alleged links with militiamen.
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