PEACE IN KURDISTAN
Solidarity with the HDP – End the Show Trial – Drop the Charges
Current political developments inside Turkey should fill the outside observer with utter dismay. The authoritarian nature of the government of President Erdogan and the AKP is exposed for all to see by its ruthless suppression of the Kurds and all their civil, social, cultural and political activities and organisations.
The legal action against the HDP, which gives a strong political voice to the Kurds, must be seen within the framework of the Turkish state’s brutal war waged against the Kurdish population at all levels.
Nobody can be in any doubt that the case against the HDP is not a normal legal action. It is nothing less than a show trial.
It is no accident that the party draws a large proportion of its support from among the Kurdish community. It is this fact above all that makes it a target and its popular progressive political platform which poses a direct challenge to the long domination of Turkish politics by Erdogan and the AKP.
Against the AKP’s sectarianism, hatred and strife, the HDP offers hope, social progress and reconciliation.
The outcome of the legal case will have hugely significant consequences for the future of the country and it will determine the character of Turkey for a generation. The outcome will be critical for the fraught relations between the Turkish state and the Kurdish population.
Nothing could be more calculated to provoke disenchantment among the Kurds with the political process in the country than the suppression of the HDP, which has long provided an effective political voice for the Kurdish people.
The defeat of the HDP by these legal machinations rather than at the ballot box will be a grotesque injustice that will stain forever the country’s reputation for democratic respectability, which is already seriously tarnished by the AKP’s increasing authoritarianism.
Peace in Kurdistan has raised the importance of this landmark trial with the UK government at the highest level and we are pledged to continue the campaign whatever the trial’s outcome.
We stand in solidarity with the HDP and call for this show trail to be abandoned.
We applaud your resolve, courage and political leadership. What the HDP represents is peace, social justice, progress and reconciliation between peoples. Those principles are the future and cannot ever be suppressed irrespective of the result of this forthcoming trial.
14 March 2023
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella@gn.apc.org
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid: 07846 666 804 & Melanie Gingell: 07572 430903
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Maggie Cook, UNISON women activist; Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Dr Radha D’Souza, writer, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Prof Dr. Michael Gunter, Secretary-General, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Rahila Gupta, journalist, Lord Hylton, Nick Hildyard, policy advisor, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru: Doug Jewell, GFTU General Secretary, James Kelman, novelist, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Dr Les Levidow, Open University, Elfyn Llwyd; John McDonnell MP, Mike Mansfield QC, David Morgan, journalist, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Ali Gul Ozbek, Former Councillor and Mayor of Haringey; Gareth Peirce, Dr Felix Padel, anthropologist, Maxine Peake, actor, Dr Thomas Phillips, Liverpool John Moores University, Father Joe Ryan; Dr Thomas Schmidt, ELDH Europe, Bert Schouwenburg, International Trade Union Adviser, Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, PIK Trade Union Liaison Officer, Jonathan Steele, journalist, Chris Stephens SNP MP, Steve Sweeney, journalist, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Federico Venturini, Associate Researcher, University of Udine, Italy; Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward, former MEP, Kariane Westrheim, Chair, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Hywel Williams MP.