ISTANBUL
Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party has slammed an attack on one of its MPs who claims he was assaulted by the military.
Ferhat Encu, a HDP member of the Turkish parliament for Sirnak, was allegedly assaulted by members of the Turkish Armed Forces on Tuesday in Uludere town.
"The attack not only targets Ferhat Encu, it also targets all deputies," said Aycan Irmez, a fellow HDP parliamentarian from Sirnak, on Wednesday.
Irmez said that Encu was helping villagers to come down from Sirit Plateau in Uludere when he was assaulted by the military for no reason.
Speaking to press, Encu said he filed a criminal complaint to the Uludere Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday.
Claiming that he was attacked without giving any right to speak, Encu said, "I walked towards the soldiers to express myself and tell them to end the attack"
However, they (military forces) pulled a gun on me and hit my head with the gun tube. I was assaulted as a MP," Encu said.
According to local media, tensions have risen in the town as residents are being forced to move after the plateau was earmarked for use by the military.
Some media sources also alleged that the area has been under a blockade for nearly four months and that the government has forced people to move other areas.
Encu has tweeted that the army attacked and opened fire on villagers on 29 June in Uludere.
"Houses were raked [with gunfire]. The people of Roboski [Uludere] were the target. [...] Many mules were killed when the fire opened,” he tweeted.
However, Sirnak governorate has said that over 250 people attacked the military who are in the region to fight smuggling on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
"Ten soldiers were injured and four people were detained in the mentioned incidents," the statement read.
Uludere has been subject to such events since 2011 when 34 citizens were killed by air force jets acting on information that Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants were crossing the border.
According to Turkish government sources, all the victims were cigarette- and drug-smuggling civilians.
