NEWS

Date published: 15 June 2020 12:46

~ Modified On: 15 June 2020 22:19

8 min Read

HDP starts 'March for Democracy' from both ends of the country to the capital

Against the dismissal of its MPs and mayors, the HDP has started a march from the northwestern and southeastern edges of the country to the capital, Ankara.

İstanbul

HDP Co-Chair Sancar delivers a speech ahead of the march in Hakkari. (Photo: AA)

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The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) started "March for Democracy" today (June 15) in the northwestern Edirne and the southeastern Hakkari provinces.

Ahead of the march, the police surrounded the party's provincial building in Edirne, the Mezopotamya Agency reported.

Here are today's develoments:

Police detained many in Silivri

Photos: Mezopotamya Agency

Co-Chair Pervin Buldan, MPs, executives and members of the party gathered in front of the Silivri Shopping Mall on the European side of İstanbul at around 12 p.m.

The police intervened when they were about to set off for Edirne, detaining many.

March started in Hakkari

As for the other part of the march, a group of party members, along with co-chair Mithat Sancar, arrived in Hakkari from Van last night.

According to reports, the city has been completely surrounded by the police since the morning. Special operation forces and snipers have been deployed around state buildings.

The police also surrounded the HDP's provincial building, where MP Garo Paylan started a live broadcast.

After Sancar made a statement for the press, the march started.

Darbeye karşı demokrasi yürüyüşümüz Hakkari’den başlıyor! https://t.co/JRVUNCHf8G
— Garo Paylan - Կարօ Փայլան (@GaroPaylan) June 15, 2020

#HepBirlikte Denizlerin Hakkari’de kurdukları Devrimci Gençlik Köprüsü’nde, onların izinde... pic.twitter.com/x7Wh7U7TJb
— HDP (@HDPgenelmerkezi) June 14, 2020

Sancar: We won't abandon democratic politics

Delivering a speech ahead of the march, Sancar briefly said the following:

"They don't even let us come together. But we are together at heart. No one can break our unity. We will be together in hearts and streets.

"Our hearts are one, nobody can build a wall between us and our people. Our march is the march for democracy against the coup. Putschism is to usurp the will of the people. It is to persecute the people. A coup is not only done with tanks, guns. A coup can alo be done with using the judiciary, the resources of the ruling power. The first thing that all putschists do is to usurp the will of the people.

"This government also uses the same methods. It uses the judiciary, the resources of the ruling power. This is called a political coup. What putschists feat the most is freedom. First, they usurp the will of the people, they immediately destroy freedoms. Our right to march is based on the Constitution.

"When it comes to us using our democratic rights, [the government] uses the pandemic as an excuse. If it doesn't let [us] exercise a right recognized by the Constitution, this is putschism.

"We are here to solve the country's freedom, Kurdish problems through politics and democracy. This is why we are in politics but the government wants to suffocate the politics as well. All mentalities that want to suffocate politics are pro-coup."

"Our march is for justice. The most important thing that can corrupt a society politically and morally is to destroy justice. We are here for justice. We march for Leyla Güven, Musa Farisoğulları and Enis Berberoğlu, who were unjustly and unfairly stripped of MP status. We are marching for our previous co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, for Abdullah Zeydan, Gültan Kışanak, for all imprisoned journalists, intellectuals who are unfairly imprisoned. We are marching for Osman Kavala. We are marching for press laborers who are unfairly held behind bars."

Buldan: Peace and democracy are not to be feared

HDP Co-Chair Pervin Buldan made a statement in front of Silivri Shopping Mall, where the party members gathered to move to Edirne.

"They will never be able to make us take a step back from our resolute march. We are not this many. We are thousands, millions. You have made undemocratic decisions in violation of the Constitution by banning entries and exits to many cities. The measures you have taken to prevent HDP from meeting with the people will not prevent us from coming together with our people.

"There are the representatives of millions [of people] in Edirne. In many prisons, especially in Edirne, there are members of parliament and co-mayors who represent millions. Today, this democratic march against the coup, is a march for all our friends in prisons, especially for Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

"This march is not only for Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ. It is about living together with freedom, democracy and in peace. The peace, Demirtaş, Yüksekdağ are not to be feared this much. They are the will of the millions. This march is also for Osman Kavala. It is for millions of people who were subjected to starvation, poverty and misery by the AKP government. This march will continue. It will continue until peace, freedoms and democracy comes to this country."

Second police intervention in Silivri

The police used rubber bullets and tear gas against the HDP members, including MPs Tuma Çelik and Musa Piroğlu, after they attempted to march to the shopping mall again.

Several party members were detained during the intervention as the others chanted, "We'll prevail by resisting."

HDP members arrived in Edirne

After the earlier police intervention in Silivri, the HDP members arrived in Edirne. Co-Chair Buldan, Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) Co-Spokesperson İdil Uğurlu, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Keskin Bayındır, Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) Chair Erkan Baş and Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) Co-Chair Özlem Gümüştaş gathered in the city with aprons "Em bi hev re" (We are together) written on them.

The group was not allowed to march to Edirne Prison, where Seahattin Demirtaş is held. Then they gathered in a place near the prison, chanting slogans and performing halay, a folk dance.

Buldan also delivered a speech there, saying, "We are marching for the 82 million."

"Dear friends, today, we have come here to make a statement in front of Edirne Prison. Actually, our aim was not to read out the statement here. It was to read out the statement in front of the gate of Edirne Prison, to show this shame to entire Turkey.

"To show that what does it mean to send the will of the people to jail, usurping the will of the people. But today, entries and exits are banned to Edirne, Diyarbakır, Hakkari, Van, and many cities in Turkey. Peoples' entries to cities have been banned illegitimately and illegally.

"Today in Edirne, our Edirne provincial organization was blockaded. Our meeting with the people of Edirne was prevented. It is not just here. It seems that it will continue until the end of this march. However, these preventions, their prohibition will never intimidate us. We will uncompromisingly continue this struggle for peace, justice, freedoms.

"The biggest problem of Turkey is the AKP's oppression, violence and denial towards the Kurds, Alevis, women, Armenians and all dissenters in Turkey. Today, those who govern the country are trying to take revenge from the Kurds by damaging their gravestones. Those who govern the country attack Alevis' cemevis, burning down their places of worship. Those who govern the country are trying to take revenge from the Armenian people by damaging their churches."

Schedule of the march

Ebru Günay, the Spokesperson and Mardin MP for the HDP, previously announced the schedule of the march as follows:

The march will start in Edirne and Hakkari provinces on June 15.
The group who start to march from the eastern Hakkari province will go along Van, Diyarbakır and Adana provinces and reach the capital city of Ankara on June 19.
The group who start to march from the northwestern Edirne province will go along the Anatolian and European sides of İstanbul. There will be institutional meetings as well as meetings with workers-laborers and people in three regions of İstanbul on June 16-17-18-19.
Setting out from İstanbul on June 19, the group will be in Ankara on June 20.
With two groups coming together in Ankara, a statement for the press will be held to share the demands and expectations of the local people with the public.

What happened?

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Enis Berberoğlu and HDP Hakkari and Diyarbakır MPs Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları were stripped of their MP status on June 4 on the ground that there were finalized court rulings against them.

While all three were arrested on the same day, CHP's Berberoğlu has been released and sent home as part of coronavirus measures.

Put on trial with Can Dündar, the former Editor-in-Chief of daily Cumhuriyet, for giving him the footage of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks allegedly carrying weapons to Syria, Enis Berberoğlu has been sentenced to 5 years, 10 months for "disclosing information that needs to be kept confidential for the security of the state or domestic or international interests for purposes of political and military espionage."

While Diyarbakır 2nd Heavy Penal Court has sentenced Musa Farisoğulları to 9 years in prison for "membership of an armed terrorist organization", Leyla Güven has also been sentenced to 6 years, 3 months in prison on the same charge and by the same court.

The prison sentences of Berberoğlu, Farisoğulları and Güven have been upheld by the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation.

(EMK/VK)