13.10.2026 14:20
Reactions came one after another to the New Welfare Party organization in Muğla washing the square where DEM Party held a press statement with vinegar water. DEM Party Ağrı MP Sırrı Sakık reacted harshly with the words, "If only they had licked the places they stepped on instead of washing them," while Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Pervin Buldan also reacted, saying, "The honor of the Kurdish people will not be sullied by your vinegar water."
At Sınırsızlık Square in the Menteşe district of Muğla, the DEM Party Provincial Organization held a press statement on October 9 by opening a banner reading "Freedom for Mr. Öcalan".
New Welfare Party Muğla Provincial Chair Fatih Kocabıyık and accompanying party members, who reacted to the statement, went to the same square on October 12 and washed the ground with vinegar water.
Kocabıyık, stating that the action would continue, said, "I instructed my organization. We will wash this place with vinegar water and Arabic soap for 40 days. Cleaning is only possible this way."
SIRRI SAKIK LASHED OUT
There was a harsh reaction from the DEM Party front to the New Welfare Party's action. Ağrı MP Sırrı Sakık, in his statement, accused the New Welfare Party of political bargaining and used harsh words.
Sakık included the following words in his statement: "A party that hands over the mayors it elected as a package to the government, reneges on all its promises for the sake of bargaining for two parliamentary seats, and sets up a stall for the few votes it has in every election…"
"IF ONLY THEY HAD LICKED INSTEAD OF WASHING"
In the continuation of his statement, further hardening his reaction, Sakık said: "If, instead of washing the places stepped on by members of the Kurdish political movement that has not moved an inch from its place for 50 years despite all killings, attacks, arrests, pressures and threats, they had licked them, perhaps they would have learned to have some honor, dignity and integrity."
ANOTHER REACTION FROM PERVİN BULDAN
After Sakık's words, another reaction came from Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and DEM Party Van MP Pervin Buldan. Buldan said, "The honor of the Kurdish people will not be sullied by your vinegar water. Those who do politics with hatred, discrimination and racism will go down in history with their own shame."