Kurdish deputy files charges after bullet thrown at him, allegedly by the police

Hasan Ozgunes, deputy for the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) filed criminal charges on Monday after a bullet was thrown at him during a party gathering from a direction where a police squad was positioned.

The incident took place on Saturday in the Kurdish-majority city of Cizre, where a group gathered on the occasion of the anniversary of the removal of the elected pro-Kurdish mayors by the Turkish Interior Ministry.

While an address was made, an object reportedly hit Sirnak deputy Ozgunes.

"This is a bullet," he is recorded saying in a video, as he picked up the object and showed it to people around him. He then turned towards the police squad and said: "It came from your direction. What a great thing you've achieved. But let me tell you something as a deputy: Even your masters do not terrify us."

The deputy then handed the bullet to an official, while the camera zoomed to show the bullet in his palm.

Ozgunes said after he filed criminal charges in the provincial center of Sirnak:

"We assess that this incident marks a warning made against all HDP members. So I have filed criminal charges alongside our province and district officials and the co-mayors of Cizre. We want an investigation to be launched into this incident in order to identify both the bullet, and by whom and for what ends it was thrown."

Turksh police: "We're faced with a fresh slander"

The Department of Police responded in a statement saying that it was "technically impossible" for the bullet to be thrown from the direction of the police squad, and that making such an accusation "meant reversing rules of physics."

It added.

"Our department, who has achieved countless successes in the fight against terror, is targeted through a fresh slander by a party, who is faced with a closure case in the Constitutional Court over allegations that 'their members have tried, through statements and acts, to destroy the inseparable unity of the state with its people.'"

It also claimed that the object, which has been confirmed to be a bullet, was thrown from the direction of the protesting group, and that it was a free falling bullet, or a "tired" one.