Bahoz Erdal, the leader of the PKK's military wing, called for a Kurdish uprising in response to the incident: "We urge the people of Kurdistan... to react after this massacre and seek a settling of accounts through uprisings." Meanwhile, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtaş released a statement claiming that "It’s clearly a massacre of civilians, of whom the oldest is 20," but he called for Kurds to respond through democratic means.[24] He also quoted Erdoğan on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: "A leader who kills his own people has lost his legitimacy" and said "now I say the same thing back to him."[2]