KURDISH NEWS BRIEFING
1 July 2021
Please find below articles and statements on the two major legal cases against the party and the recent shocking murder of HDP member Deniz Poyraz on 17 June . The legal cases are aimed at shutting down the HDP and imprisoning key party members for very long periods of time, taking them out of the political arena.
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) leaders Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar have recently met with lawyers to prepare a defense. Buldan described the case as “historic” and said “the closure case will do no good for Turkey’s democracy and its future.” Sancar added, “It is not possible to prepare an indictment accusing the HDP of separatism and violence. The HDP is the party that resolutely advocates living in peace and democracy in Turkey.” The Turkish government has already closed over a dozen political parties, including nine Kurdish ones, since the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.
The third session of the second case, the“Kobani Trial”, against 108 HDP members continues with several defendants, already imprisoned for previous offenses, participating from prison. HDP Foreign Affairs Commission member and defendant Nazmi Gur claimed he and other detainees were suffering ill-treatment and being harassed by prison officials.
The Turkish government’s crackdown on Kurdish activism continues unabated with the arrest of more HDP members and activists last week. Turkish police detained four people attempting to commemorate Deniz Poyraz and arrested three Kurdish men in the Beytüşşebap District of Şırnak Province. The Turkish military launched an operation in Bitlis Province’s Hizan District.
__________________________________________________________________________
- Turkish push to ban opposition party alarms EU and US
18 March 2021/Financial Times
Europe and the US have criticised Turkey’s push to close its second-biggest opposition party, warning the government that the move violated human rights and threatened democracy. The country’s senior prosecutor late on Wednesday demanded a court shut down the People’s Democratic party (HDP), whose base is largely Kurdish, accusing it of links with armed militants and activities that undermine national unity, according to a copy of the 609-page indictment.
https://www.ft.com/content/ccb19700-bcf7-4fb5-bb4b-1717723a0f40
- Turkey moves to ban pro-Kurdish HDP opposition party
17 March 2021/BBC news
A Turkish prosecutor has asked the country’s top court to ban the main pro-Kurdish opposition party, in a move the group branded a “political coup”.
The prosecutor filed a case accusing the Peoples’ Democratic Party – or HDP – of colluding with a banned Kurdish militant movement.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56438070
- SOLIDARITY WITH THE HDP
June 11 2021/Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
In Turkey the state wields the justice system like a sword. For decades the state has used the judiciary as a political tool, but we are now entering a new and vicious time.
On 7th June this year the Chief Prosecutor submitted his indictment to close down the HDP, the third largest political party in Turkey. A party that represents the democratic political will of over 6 million people.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/solidarity-with-the-hdp/
- Constitutional Court accepts indictment seeking HDP’s closure
21 June 2021/HDP Europe
Statement by HDP’s Co-spokespersons for Foreign Affairs Feleknas Uca & Hişyar Özsoy
With the deadly armed attack against the HDP İzmir Provincial Building and resulting death of a young woman still fresh in peoples’ memories, the closure case against the HDP has been made official. The Constitutional Court has now accepted the revised indictment.
The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation first applied to the Constitutional Court demanding the closure of the HDP on 17 March 2021. On 31 March, the General Assembly of the Constitutional Court decided to return the indictment to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office as it contained deficiencies.
https://hdpeurope.eu/2021/06/constitutional-court-accepts-indictment-seeking-hdps-closure-2/
- Turkey puts 108 Kurdish politicians on trial over 2014 Kobani protests
26 April 2021/Guardian
Turkey has put 108 Kurdish politicians on trial in what critics say is politically motivated “revenge” for their alleged roles in deadly protests in 2014 sparked by the Isis takeover of the Syrian border town of Kobani.
- Kobani case: Lawyers leave courtroom in protest
26 April 2021/Medya News
The first hearing of the Kobani case has started in Ankara. A total of 108 HDP politicians, including the jailed former HDP co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, will be tried for the deaths that occurred during the Kobani protests, which took place on 6-8 October 2014 in Turkey, mainly in the Kurdish majority east and southeast.
https://medyanews.net/kobani-case-lawyers-leave-courtroom-in-protest/
- Kobani Trial: HDP members face hostile attitude
24 June2021/ANF English
Officials check us twice with x-ray device from the ward to the outside. But today, we were subjected to harassment by an officer working there during body search. We were faced with a hostile attitude. We protest and cannot accept it.
https://anfenglish.com/news/kobani-trial-hdp-members-face-hostile-attitude-53013
- Kobani Trial: “This Court is all About Defending ISIS”
25 May 2021/HDP Europe
BACKGROUND & TIMELINE OF EVENTS
On October 2014, the HDP called on people to support legitimate popular protests for Kobani against the ISIS attack on the city and the ongoing support for ISIS being shown by the Turkish regime. For years, the HDP has been calling for a parliamentary inquiry to shed light on what led to the violence, but Erdogan’s regime has always rejected this proposal.
- Selahattin Demirtas, former Co-Chair of the HDP, was detained on 4 November 2016 as part of this case, which thus fell under the scrutiny of the European Court of Human Rights.
https://hdpeurope.eu/2021/05/kobani-trial-this-court-is-all-about-defending-isis/
- “Now is the time to stand up”
29 June 2021/ANF English
There is a large social segment in Turkey that is dissatisfied with the ruling AKP/MHP regime. Despite all the repression, attacks, propaganda and manipulation of opinion, 70% of the population is dissatisfied with this government. The times when the AKP could deceive the people with democratic rhetoric and thus generate approval are over.
https://anfenglish.com/news/now-is-the-time-to-stand-up-53122
- HDP: Regarding Armed Attack Against the HDP Izmir Provincial Building
17 June 2021/HDP Europe
The HDP has been under severe political attack by the AKP government, especially since 7 June 2015 general election. We have faced police operations, detentions, and arrest, and also physical attacks that have been perpetrated by ultranationalist mobs, directed or provoked by the government. Thousands of party members, executives, and co-mayors have been detained and arrested throughout this period, and severe physical attacks have taken place as a consequence of the government’s criminalization politics against the HDP. The latest physical attack has taken place against the HDP’s İzmir Provincial Building, and, sadly, a young woman who was in the building was murdered by the assailant’s gun fire.
https://hdpeurope.eu/2021/06/hdp-armed-attack-against-the-hdp-izmir-provincial-building/
- Pervin Buldan: There could have been a great massacre with half an hour
17 June 2021/BIANET
Our word to Deniz will be peace,” said those who came together in front of the HDP İzmir Provincial Building. Pervin Buldan said, “The ability of three people to enter the building is an organized massacre plan.” Erkan Baş gave the message “We are here, we are with HDP”.
- Those who know Deniz Poyraz talk about her: There was no one who didn’t love her
21 June 2021/BIANET
Turkey heard her name after the armed attack carried out against the İzmir office of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on June 17.
Deniz Poyraz was the eldest child of a nine-child family from Mardin. As her mother, a worker and a member of the party, had undergone a surgical operation on her hand, she went to the HDP İzmir office in her place that day. While she was having her breakfast with olives and tomatoes, assailant Onur Gencer broke in and massacred Deniz with six bullets.
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella@gn.apc.org
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peaceinkurdistan1/
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, Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans, former MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Prof Dr. Michael Gunter, Secretary-General, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Rahila Gupta, journalist, Nick Hildyard, policy advisor, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Dr Les Levidow, Open University, Elfyn Llwyd, John McDonnell MP; Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, 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, Maxine Peake, actor, Dr Thomas Phillips, Liverpool John Moores University, Trevor Rayne, writer, Joe Ryan, Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, PIK Trade Union Liaison Officer, Jonathan Steele, journalist, 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.