Eight injured after MHP supporters attack İYİ Party booth in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Eight were injured after supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) attacked an election campaign booth of the opposition İYİ (Good) Party in Istanbul’s Bağcılar district on May 6.

Four İYİ Party supporters were reportedly stabbed and four sustained wounds from beating in the attack. All eight injured received medical treatment at nearby hospitals after the attack.

State-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 7 that eight people have been detained in connection with the incident.

Reaction from İYİ Party

İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener, standing as the party’s presidential candidate in the upcoming election on June 24, condemned the incident.

“No threats and no attacks will intimidate us. With patience we will build the goodness and common sense that Turkey needs,” Akşener wrote on Twitter.

İYİ Party Deputy Chair Musavat Dervişoğlu stated on Twitter that MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli is responsible for “every drop of blood spilled.”

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Muharrem İnce also condemned the incident.

“I condemn the attack on the İYİ Party booth. I wish those injured a quick recovery,” İnce tweeted on May 6.

“Political competition is no war. We are all children of this country,” he added.

Over the weekend, Akşener and Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu collected the required 100,000 signatures to be a presidential candidate and qualify to run in the snap presidential election on June 24.

Also running will be İnce, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed former co-chair of the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The CHP, the İYİ Party, the SP and the Democrat Party (DP) last week struck an agreement to take part in the upcoming snap parliamentary election as part of an alliance, which will run against the “People’s Alliance” established by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the MHP.