Second armed attack on HDP in a month

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A person with a shotgun attacked the district office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Marmaris, Muğla, early in the morning.

No one was hurt in the attack and the assailant was detained at the scene of the incident, the Muğla Governor's Office said in a written statement.

The assailant, A.T.D (28), had also attacked the office in 2018 and legal action was taken against him because of "damaging property," said the governor's office.

More than 100 shots were fired during the attack, HDP Marmaris District Co-Chair Güven Göknar told bianet. "He comes in, covers the camera and discharges five magazines with a shotgun," he said.

"It's a type of shell that is called a 'dumdum bullet.' More than 100 bullets were fired. Windows, tables are broken. There are 15 bullets only on the fridge," he added.

"It's a planned attack intended to scare and intimidate. First İzmir, then Marmaris, this is not a coincidence," Göknar noted, recalling last month's attack on the HDP provincial office in İzmir where a party member was tortured and shot dead.

About a statement by the Marmaris Sub-governor's Office that the assailant is a person of unsound mind, Göknar said, "This is covering up and vindicating the crime. They said the same things after the murder of Deniz Poyraz as well. These are efforts to protect assailants."

"We lay claim to the democracy of this country. They can't intimidate us. We won't be intimidated this way. We won't give up on this country," he remarked. (RT/VK)