Pro-Kurdish party launches demonstration against Turkish crackdown

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Wednesday called on its voters to demonstrate against an ongoing government crackdown on the Kurdish political movement.

Over a dozen HDP lawmakers gathered at a public park in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir to denounce Turkish authorities that have imprisoned thousands of politicians including mayors, MPs, and the party’s co-leader Selahattin Demirtas.

Hundreds of Turkish police officers with armored vehicles and water cannons imposed tight security around the park, preventing citizens from joining their representatives.

Speaking to reporters following the protest at the park, HDP’s Spokesperson and former mayor of Diyarbakir Osman Baydemir appealed to the people of the city to bang pots, pans, and honk car horns at night time to defend “justice and freedom.”

Baydemir described practices of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government as “fascism” and said Turkey was now an open prison, reported a Kurdistan 24 correspondent there.

“They tell us you should die,” he said before going on to read two defiant lines from the Kurdish national anthem.

“Let no one say Kurds are dead; they are living. They live and never shall the Kurdish flag be lowered,” he chanted in the Kurdish language.

Baydemir drew attention to the continued imprisonment of Demirtas, and of Diyarbakir’s ousted Co-mayors Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli.

Earlier this month, Erdogan called Demirtas a “terrorist” despite an ongoing judicial process, as his government accuses the HDP of being a political front for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a charge the Kurdish opposition denies.

“They are your children, make a stand for them,” he told the people of Diyarbakir.

Police arrested Kisanak and Anli in October 2016 before the Interior Ministry dismissed them from their position to which voters elected them in 2014.

HDP’s Co-chair Serpil Kemalbay criticized the high presence of police force around the HDP lawmakers’ gathering.

“Just like Kurdistan, our watch for conscience and justice is under blockade,” she said.

Kemalbay was referring to the Kurdish-majority regions by their historical name which the Turkish Parliament last week banned the lawmakers from using.

“This very state of affairs proves what we should do,” she added. “We will continue our struggle in defense of peace and justice.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Kurdistan 24's Diyarbakir bureau followed the HDP protest)