Photos: Mesopotamia Agency
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The Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) march to the capital Ankara in protest of the dismissal of its MPs continues on the fourth day.
The group that set off from the southeastern Hakkari province today (June 18) arrived in Diyarbakır.
HDP MPs and party executives visited several civil society organizations, including the Human Rights Association (İHD), Association of Lawyers for Freedom, Diyarbakır Bar Association and Mother of Peace.
At a meeting by several organizations at Mechanical Engineers Chamber, Saliha Aydeniz, the co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the HDP's ally in the Kurdish-majority regions, said that the march is not just against the dismissal of the MPS but also against the government's "oppressive and fascistic" practices.
The other group that started the march from the northwestern Edirne province is currently in İstanbul.
MP Beştaş: People embraced the march
HDP MP Meral Danış-Beştaş held a press conference today in Ankara, the capital. Saying that the march was continuing "despite all obstacles," the peoples' embracing the HDP in İstanbul's Kadıköy and Diyarbakır gave hope to them.
"In the last five years, HDP has been systematically censored," she said in criticism of the news media.
Pointing out the media owners' investments and ties with the government, she said, "Every day and night, as if they are the media organ of the AKP, they broadcast whatever it says, right or wrong. It's needless to say that this is a constitutional crime. Because we live in a period where the constitution is no more. The peoples' right to information is being violated."
"Another aim of the systematic embargo against HDP is to criminalize and purge it ... You will be wiped away with AKP," she said.
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. Diyarbakır 2nd Heavy Penal Court sentenced Musa Farisoğulları to 9 years in prison and Leyla Güven to 6 years, 3 months in prison for "membership of an armed terrorist organization",. The prison sentences of Berberoğlu, Farisoğulları and Güven have been upheld by the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation. |
(EMK/VK)
