The Republican People’s Party in the UK called dozens of people to gather at London’s famous street, Trafalgar Square, to burn candles for those who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks.
The leader of the CHP, Hasan Dikme, who called people to the gathering with the message: “Take your candle and carnation and join us. Bring light to the world of darkness”, said in a statement: “We gathered at Trafalgar Square to raise our voices against the inhumane massacre at Reina in Istanbul on New Year’s day. As well as Reina, we condemn the brutal attacks that occured at Besiktas stadium too. This is an attack against people. We believe it’s an attitude towards the united republic. We will always be against this and we will never give in to such acts.”
The CHP UK, who made a written statement on the attack, included the following: “At Ortakoy in Istanbul, during the early hours of the new year, 39 citizens lost their lives and 65 were injured after a bloody terrorist attack. We strongly condemn the politicians who made our country the target of these terrorist organisations and who have neglected us by failing to take necessary precautions to prevent such massacres. We condemn this attack that has harassed many lives and the AKP for not taking any measures against this and for not initiating any investigation. At the very start of the new year, as if we are not living in Turkey, but in one of the Middle Eastern countries, we have been exposed to numerous scandalous and cunning teacher figures on TV of child molesters and rapists who state that “it is forbidden to celebrate Christmas and it is acceptable to interfere with those that are celebrating”. The AKP government, which immediately launched an investigation into social media posts against it, has remained silent on all these provocations and have not dealt with them. In the two days before the new year, similar preaches on the sin of celebrating Christmas were given at hundreds of thousands of mosques. The head of Religious Affairs gave a similar speech which targeted those that celebrated the Christian holiday… This dark soul hasn’t managed to rule Turkey in 14 years. These people are set on pushing Turkey backwards. We will never kneel to those with dark mentalies that have caused our country to be like those in the Middle East, drowning in terrorism.”