Turkish PM calls dragged corpse pic 'unacceptable', HDP leader urges interior minister to resign

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has ?disapproved? an image tweeted of a corpse tied to the back of a security vehicle being dragged on a street in southeast Turkey where security forces are battling militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK), while the co-leader of the Kurdish problem-focused opposition party has called for the immediate resignation of the interior minister over the scandal.

?It is not possible for us to approve images of a terrorist organization member who was neutralized while attacking police with rocket launcher in ??rnak,? Davuto?lu said early Oct. 5. ?Required legal and administrative instructions have been given about this incident,? he said in a message posted on his official Facebook account.

As of Oct. 4, the Interior Ministry announced that it has launched an investigation into possible human rights abuses after the image was posted earlier that day. The photograph was posted on Twitter and shared by Selahattin Demirta?, the co-chair of the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP).

The corpse belonged to HDP ??rnak deputy Leyla Birlik?s brother-in-law, Hac? Lokman Birlik, who is said to have been killed during clashes between police and members of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the youth wing of the PKK, happening in downtown ??rnak since Oct. 1.

Demirta?, speaking to reporters on Oct. 5, said Davuto?lu?s statement about the incident was not ?satisfactory.?

?Let me say that this is only one case that was exposed on camera. Very similar incidents are taking place there each day. Imagine what might have been done to the living by those who did this to the dead. That is not meant to say that ?All security forces are like this and doing this,? but these are pretty...