Interior Minister Targets Audience of Theater Play Adapted from Demirtaş's Book

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Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu has targeted the people who watched the theater play adopted from the short story book of Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic (HDP).

"You can't clean the blood on your hands with theater plays," Soylu said in a speech yesterday (January 12) he made at the opening of a ski center on Ilgaz Mountains in central Anatolia.

Adapted for the stage as a closet drama, "Devran," the second short story book of Demirtaş, made its debut in İstanbul on January 11. While the audience watched the play in applause, they called for "freedom to Demirtaş".

He also targeted Kadir İnanır, a renowned actor who watched the debut of the play.

"Mr. Kadir, you left it incomplete, those you went to that play, you left it incomplete. On one side of the theater hall, you should have put a picture of Yasin Börü, who was martyred, you should put the 39 slaughtered people," he said, referring to the people who died in protests that were held in October 2015 in the mostly Kurdish populated southeastern provinces.

"You can't clean the blood on your hands with theater plays. You can't fool this nation. You will not be able to divide this country," Soylu said, adding that "Turkey is not the old Turkey." (AÖ/VK)