JINHA

AMED – With all information indicating that the bombing at the HDP rally in Diyarbakır today was a coordinated attack, HDP politicians are urging supporters to remain calm in the hours leading up to the election.

With just two days to go until Turkey's June 7 election, hundreds of thousands were out at the massive HDP rally in Diyarbakır's İstasyon Square. As HDP general co-chair SelahattinDemirtaş was preparing to take to the stage, an explosion took place, followed immediately by a second.

Pieces of metal found at the scene of the bombings, which took place three minutes apart, indicate that a cluster bomb was used. 35 are confirmed wounded, some seriously. Local hospitals have issued an urgent call for a need for all blood types. At the time of the bombing, the Twitter account of the Human Rights Association (İHD), which has over 88,000 followers, was hacked and began broadcasting fascist anti-Kurdish messages.

HDP Istanbul candidate Hüda Kaya says that in the context of the assassination of a HDP activist in Bingöl and the coordinated fascist attack on the HDP's Erzurum rally, all evidence points to the fact that these attacks are part of a coordinated attempt to terrorize the HDP. Filiz Kerestecioğlu, also commenting, said that the goal of these types of attacks was for voters to go to the polls in an atmosphere of war. Many HDP politicians have urged calm in the wake of the attack.

"We aren't going to abandon our struggle for democracy, freedom and peace in the face of these kinds of attacks," said the HDP's Istanbul provincial co-chair, Ayşe Erdem. "In the face of all of this, against those who want to produce an atmosphere of chaos, this will be a revolutionary movement that remains prudent and deliberate."

(dk-ed/fk/cm)