Turkish Leaders Emphasize Terror Attacks In Messages For Feast Of Sacrifice

- Political leaders and the Turkish president have conveyed their messages for the Feast of Sacrifice, which starts on Sept. 24 and lasts for four days, all putting an emphasis on the terror attacks towards the country’s security forces in the past two months.

Each and every citizen of Turkey is equal and has the same rights and freedoms, President Tayyip Erdoğan said Sept. 23 in a message on the occasion of Feast of Sacrifice.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its sympathizers aim to “set brothers at odds who address the same kiblah and share a common past and future dreams” he stated.

Turkey and the region have been passing through an examination, the president said, noting that some circles were using the PKK to bring “fire in neighboring” countries to Turkey and destroy the nation’s brotherhood.

He also called on citizens to help more than 2 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Turkey.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said that the Feast of Sacrifice should be an opportunity to stand together against people who want to separate the inseparable components of the society and split the country by means of terror acts.

“Come on and lets greet each other all together against people who want to turn the feast joy to blood, terror and violence, and want to separate a brother from its sibling,” said Davutoğlu in a written statement issued on Sept. 23.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said even though Islamic feasts were normally times of embracing each other within the society, the developments in Turkey and the region made “our hearts break.”

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli lashed out at the terror acts and President Erdoğan, who Bahçeli held responsible for the terrorist acts in the country, via his Twitter account.