Turkey's pro-Kurdish leader survives assassination attempt

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas was unharmed after his car was hit by a bullet on Sunday, November 22, in an apparent assassination attempt, a spokesman for his political party said, according to Reuters.

The rear window of Demirtas's bullet-proof car was hit once as he and his security team were driving in the city of Diyarbakir in the largely Kurdish southeast of the country, the spokesman said.

Demirtas told the Firat News Agency that the bullet dent was noticed when they got out of the car. He also said the car was taken away by police, but no bullet cartridge was found.

"Death is God's command," Demirtas tweeted after the incident.

Demirtas led his People's Democratic Party (HDP) through a highly successful election campaign in June, seeing it cross the threshold to enter parliament as a party for the first time and depriving the ruling AK Party of its majority. The AK Party won back a majority in a rerun this month, but the HDP remained above the 10 percent threshold to stay in parliament.