Former Grey Wolves leader warns of assassination attempt against Kilicdaroglu

Former Grey Wolves leader warns of assassination attempt against Kilicdaroglu
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"I've heard about a move against Mr. Kilicdaroglu," Alaattin Aldemir has said, adding that it may be contracted to a mafia group.

A former leader of ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves in Turkey said during a live broadcast on Tuesday that he received information about a possible assassination attempt against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the presidential candidate of a six-party opposition bloc.

Alaattin Aldemir, who had been imprisoned for seven years after the military coup in 1980 on charges of involvement in illegal activities under the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and who served during the 1990s as the head of Grey Wolves for four years, told Halk TV's Ismail Kucuckkaya:

"What's more important than the security of the ballot boxes now is the security of the leaders of six parties that constitute the Nation Alliance. I've heard certain things, things about a planned move against Mr. Kilicdaroglu through means of a mafia group. I am calling state officials to duty, otherwise they'll all be considered complicit. I've been hearing about this plan to make a move, just like they did in the case of Sinan [former Grey Wolves leader Sinan Ates who was assassinated on 30 December]."

Asked about objections by some ultra-nationalist circles to a dialogue between Kilicdaroglu and officials of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Aldemir said that first the Justice and Development Party (MHP) was "held hostage" by MHP, by declaring any dialogue with HDP "high treason," and now there were similar attempts to hold CHP hostage through nationalist Good Party, to prevent a dialogue.

"We will not allow this," Aldemir said, adding:

"HDP is a legal party, isn't it? (...) You shouldn't treat Kurds as separatists. It's that simple. China is treating all Uyghurs as terrorists. Then China has the right to do that, does it? No, they are both wrong (...) I'm a person who defend the unity of Turks, the Turan. We were separated from the Kazakhs, the Uzbeks a thousand years ago. Are we still relatives? Yes, we are. Not in the genetic sense though. We have been living together with the peoples here for a thousand years. Are we relatives? Yes. We are relatives with Bosniaks and Kurds, and relatives with Arabs of Hatay."