The office of the governor of Izmir and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said today, Thursday, that an attacker stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish party and killed an employee working for it in the city of Izmir, western Turkey.

A statement issued by the governor's office said that the attacker, a former health worker, born in 1994, stormed the HDP office and shot party employee Deniz Poyraz, according to Reuters news agency.

The Peoples' Democratic Party is the third largest party in Turkey. It has been under great political pressure in the recent period in light of the call of the nationalists.

A prominent prosecutor has filed a lawsuit to ban the party, whose former leader and hundreds of members are in prison. In a statement posted on its website, the HDP blamed the government for the attack.

The HDP controls 55 of the parliament's 600 seats and denies any connection to PKK militants.

Turkey, the United States and the European Union classify the PKK as a terrorist organization. The party has been waging an insurgency against the state in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country, since 1984. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people.

Photo by Reuters