Former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has recently become increasingly critical of the AKP under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accusing the party of moving further and further away from its core principles.

In a press statement held earlier today, Ahmet Davutoğlu, former AKP General Vice President Selçuk Özdağ, former AKP Istanbul MP Abdullah Basçı and former AKP Sakarya MP Ayhan Sefer Üstün announced their resignation from the party.

Recently, Davutoğlu also criticized the dismissal of three Kurdish mayors of the HDP and referred to the period between the elections on 7 June and 1 November 2015. In June 2015, AKP lost the majority in the polls while Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) passed the electoral threshold and 80 seats in parliament.

The previously prepared Dolmabahçe agreement, which set the framework for democratic peace negotiations between the Turkish state and the PKK, was overturned by Erdoğan. As a result, detained PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan was completely isolated from the public, and the June 7, 2015 elections that resulted in HDP's success were annulled.

In the meantime, devastating attacks by the terrorist militia ISIS killed countless people. On July 20, 33 mainly young people were killed by a suicide bomber in Suruç district in the northern Kurdish province of Urfa. In October 2015, 103 people were killed in a terrorist attack that targeted a peace rally in capital city Ankara. On June 5, 2015, two days before the parliamentary elections, an HDP rally in Amed (Diyarbakir) was targeted by two explosions that left five people dead. The remarks of Davutoğlu today suggest that he has knowledge of the bloody series of attacks that were not made public.

In a special program for the Denge Welat radio, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member and People’s Defense Central Headquarters (HSM) Commander Murat Karayılan commented on the statements made by the former prime minister.

We give here translated excerpts from the interview.

The Kurdish liberation struggle is in a momentous phase. The developments that we are currently undergoing, as well as those that are expected for the coming year, are crucial to the future of our people, our movement and our leader. This process is to be understood as trend-setting and strategic.

War will intensify

Colonialism has started a total war against the Kurdish liberation struggle. The AKP/MHP regime relies the maintenance and stability of the fascist system on the elimination of the achievements made by the liberation movement and the Kurdish people. Despite a series of serious crises and weaknesses, this regime is mobilizing all resources for the war against our people in order to maintain its power and preserve its fascist system. In this sense, a tough war is being waged between us and the genocidal colonial Turkish state, which will intensify in the near future.

Erdoğan defied Davutoğlu

The Dolmabahçe Agreement, which was to serve as the basis for a democratic peace process, was the last step in Turkey's commitment to resolve the Kurdish issue. But for his dream of a presidential system, Erdoğan overturned the agreement and again declared total war. He did everything in his power to promote the war, to polarize society and to bring chauvinism in society. In summary, that's indeed what Davutoğlu has talked about.

First, bombs were detonated at the HDP rally in Amed, followed by the Suruç massacre and then the massacre in Ankara. It may be that ISIS bombers perpetrated these attacks, but certainly this was a planned project developed within the knowledge of Erdoğan.

The most important thing that Erdoğan overruled Davutoğlu was the massacres perpetrated in Cizre and other places during the urban resistance for self-rule. We have a number of documents and certain information on this issue.

While HDP deputies tried to step in and ensure the removal of wounded young people from basements, the generals and Turkish officials coordinating the battle there approved the evacuation. They got prepared to this end but Erdoğan intervened through MIT (Turkish Secret Services) and Hakan Fidan (MIT Undersecretary) and said ‘I don’t accept this. They must be crushed and killed’.

Erdoğan’s police responded by throwing petrol-filled plastic bottles through windows in the basements. The resistance fighters were hungry, thirsty and wounded. Assuming that it was water, they reached for the bottles. At that moment, the security forces opened fire into the basements, causing people to burn. These people were burned alive in the basements of Cizre in the most inhuman, infamous and cruel way. Majority of the basement victims consisted of young students leaving the Turkish metropolises to help the people of Cizre. This could also be what Davutoğu means.

As I mentioned earlier, we have the documents. These massacres were carried out on the order of Erdoğan and with the hand of MIT. Hakan Fidan personally told the army generals: 'The proposal of the HDP was not accepted by the Palace, the instructions are clear and must be implemented'. Thereafter, the army also implemented this genocidal practice in other cities of Kurdistan; hundreds of minors, young people and civilians fell as martyrs. All on Erdoğan’s order…