CHP MP reveals his parliamentary questions about kidnapped officers remained unanswered

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Murat Bakan has revealed that he had previously submitted six parliamentary questions about security officers kidnapped by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

He submitted his first motion concerning the issue in December 2016 and was the most recent one on February 10, according to posts he shared on Twitter.

All but one of the six motions he submitted had remained unanswered, noted Bakan.

The only motion to get a response was submitted to Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar in October 2018. In June 2019, Akar did not confirm or deny the existence of the kidnapped personnel but only said "the fight against terrorism continues."

Yesterday (February 14), Akar announced that 13 people who were held by the PKK were killed during a military operation in the Gare area in the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

While Akar referred to the captives as "unarmed, innocent citizens," Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said that "The PKK executed civilians."

However, the Governor's Office of Malatya yesterday confirmed that at least 10 of the deceased were security officers.

The government hadn't previously confirmed the kidnapping of the 13 people for "security reasons," Akar said.

"Why didn't you do anything for years, give an account of that. We have been crying with the families for years. Where were you?" Bakna wrote on Twitter.

"I know all of these boys' families. I have been struggling for years for them to return to their homeland, their homes and reunite with their families ... It shouldn't have ended like this. My heart bleeds for them," he said. (RT/VK)