Kobanî trial | Selahattin Demirtaş: The prosecutor was after a false statement

* Drawing: Ercan Altuntaş

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The fifth session of the 11th hearing of the Kobanî trial was held at the Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court in the Sincan Prison Campus Court Hall in the capital city of Ankara yesterday (April 4).

As part of the trial, 108 politicians, 22 arrested, including former Co-Chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, former Co-Chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Sebahat Tuncel as well as former HDP Central Executive Board members, have been facing charges over the October 6-8 incidents / protests in 2014.

The hearing yesterday was attended by the arrested politicians from prisons via the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS).

HDP Group Deputy Chair Meral Danış Beştaş, HDP Vice Co-Chair Responsible for Law and Human Rights Ümit Dede, HDP MPs Kemal Bülbül, Kemal Peköz, Murat Çepni, Celadet Gaydalı, Central Executive Board members and Ankara Provincial executives also followed the hearing.

'People's democratic demands provoked'

As reported by the HDP during the hearing, witness Sami Baran attended the hearing from the Antalya Prosecutor's Office via SEGBİS. Baran's previous statements had been cited as a reason for arrest.

Baran said that he knew almost everyone read out by the presiding judge and mentioned in the indictment and added:

I was a member of the Party Assembly for three terms. I have been having severe health problems since 2017. The incidents at the date you mentioned were a plan going beyond several segments [of society]. All deep forces and hands that one knows of were involved within 3-4 days. They did their best to pit the Kurdish and Turkish people against one another and to play them off against each other. I cannot say this or that did it. I do not know who illegally did what. In Kobanî, people put forward their democratic rights. I do not know what you call it, the [Gülen] religious community or what, but they caused bloodshed.

'I wasn't in my right mind while giving statement'

Saying that he has been living in tough conditions, Baran said:

"I came in that state and gave my statement. No one has the possibility to know as a man what women do or how they work.

"As I am in the Party Assembly, I know all politicians. I have a severe disease. I have a problem with my ears. They may have asked something and I may have said yes. I was not in my right mind in saying these".

Underlining that he is not in the organizational mechanism, witness Sami Baran said that the Kobanî incident was "a provocation, an incident that went beyond the HDP and several other things".

He added, "The deep state was involved, pitting people against the state. They did their best and succeeded at some point."

'I signed without reading it'

The prosecutor's office asked, "Is it because of your diseases that you do not remember your previous statements or was the content of the statements taken not true?" The wtness answered as follows:

"While I was giving a statement in Antalya, I was having severe health problems. The Security had notes and papers about these people. They asked, 'Is there such a thing?' I do not have knowledge of this. I would not have the chance to know what these people do outside politics".

When the prosecutor asked whether Baran had a lawyer with him while giving his statement, he answered, "No, there was no lawyer".

The Presiding Judge asked, "Did you give the statements under pressure and threat?" Baran briefly said the following:

"The signatures under the statements are mine. I did not happen to read them. I was not in a physical, psychological, mental position [to do it]. I signed, but I also said exactly these. I do not know what they did according to the information they had. I did not see a lawyer necessary".

'A plot case based on false statements'

Speaking after the statements of Baran, jailed politician Gültan Kışanak said:

"We have just witnessed how this file is based on a plot. This file is completely a plot file based on the false statements upon the instructions of certain circles. The statements of the witness that we heard today showed it quite manifestly. We have witnessed that the security uses the tragedies of an old, ill person and the things he did not say were put in the file".

Statement by Selahattin Demirtaş

Taking the floor afterwards, jailed former Co-Chair of the HDP Selahattin Demirtaş briefly stated the following:

The prosecutor conducting the investigation, with no evidence available, insistently sought after witnesses as he arrested me and Ms. Yüksekdağ without evidence and found witness Samir Baran. What did he say? 'They put the statement in front of me at the Security Directorate. I did not happen to read them, I did not have my lawyer. I told them to not put the things I did not say, but they did it'. What you need to do is to file a criminal complaint against the officers who had their signatures under the statements taken at the Antalya Security Directorate.

Recalling that the minutes of the interrogation referred to the presence of a lawyer from the Antalya Bar Association, Demirtaş said, "There was either no lawyer or other people introduced themselves as lawyers. Sami Baran did not even know that there was a lawyer present".

Selahattin Demirtaş briefly added: "The Antalya Security Directorate put the statement as a template before him and told him to sign it and Sami Baran signed it. Sami Baran has just said that he did not give these statements about us. Is there a need for other evidence? You have to file a criminal complaint. The prosecutor was after a false statement.

"As we are so sure of ourselves that we speak so frankly and call it a plot. The plot surfaced when Sami Baran was first heard".

Noting that "witness Sami Baran stated that he had become a tool in the plot with his free will and signed [the statement] without reading it," Demirtaş called on the court board to file a criminal complaint against the prosecutor and the security directorate. "Just as you arrested our friends based on his first statements, you should now release them", he added further.

The Kobanî trial will continue with the sixth session of the 11th hearing in the capital city of Ankara today (April 5) at 10 am.

From the Kobanî indictment

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prepared an indictment regarding the Kobanî protests that took place on October 6-8, 2014.

108 people, including the arrested former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş, were among the "suspects".

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the indictment demanded the penalization of all suspects on charges of "disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state", "killing for 37 times, "attempted killing for 31 times", "burning the flag" and "violating the Law on Protecting Atatürk."

Prepared by the Terror Crimes Investigation Bureau of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the indictment was sent to the Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court. The court accepted the indictment on January 7, 2021.

Here are the names of all defendants: Figen Yüksekdağ, Sebahat Tuncel, Selahattin Demirtaş, Selma Irmak, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Gülfer Akkaya, Gülser Yıldırım, Gültan Kışanak, Ahmet Türk, Ali Ürküt, Alp Altınörs, Altan Tan, Ayhan Bilgen, Nazmi Gür, Ayla Akat Ata, Aysel Tuğluk, İbrahim Binici, Ayşe Yağcı, Nezir Çakan, Pervin Oduncu, Meryem Adıbelli, Mesut Bağcık, Bircan Yorulmaz, Bülent Barmaksız, Can Memiş, Cihan Erdal, Berfin Özgü Köse, Günay Kubilay, Dilek Yağlı, Emine Ayna, Emine Beyza Üstün, Mehmet Hatip Dicle, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Yurdusev Özsökmenler, Arife Köse, Ayfer Kordu, Aynur Aşan, Ayşe Tonğuç, Azime Yılmaz, Bayram Yılmaz, Bergüzar Dumlu, Cemil Bayık, Ceylan Bağrıyanık, Cihan Ekin, Demir Çelik, Duran Kalkan, Elif Yıldırım, Emine Tekas, Emine Temel, Emrullah Cin, Engin Karaaslan, Enver Güngör, Ercan Arslan, Fatma Şenpınar, Fehman Hüseyin, Ferhat Aksu, Filis Arslan, Filiz Duman, Gönül Tepe, Gülseren Törün, Gülten Alataş, Gülüşan Eksen, Gülüzar Tural, Güzel İmecik, Hacire Ateş, Hatice Altınışık, Hülya Oran, İsmail Özden, İsmail Şengül, Kamuran Yüksek, Layika Gültekin, Leyla Söğüt Aydeniz, Mahmut Dora, Mazhar Öztürk, Mazlum Tekdağ, Abdulselam Demirkıran, Mehmet Taş, Mehmet Tören, Menafi Bayazit, Mızgın Arı, Murat Karayılan, Mustafa Karasu, Muzaffer Ayata, Nazlı Taşpınar, Neşe Baltaş, Nihal Ay, Nuriye Kesbir, Remzi Kartal, Rıza Altun, Ruken Karagöz, Sabiha Onar, Sabri Ok, Salih Akdoğan, Salih Müslüm Muhammed, Salman Kurtulan, Sara Aktaş, Sibel Akdeniz, Şenay Oruç, Ünal Ahmet Çelen, Yahya Figan, Yasemin Becerekli, Yusuf Koyuncu, Yüksel Baran, Zeki Çelik, Zeynep Karaman, Zeynep Ölbeci, Zübeyir Aydar.

About Kobanî protests

Before the protests held to support Kobanî in northern Syria in 2014, those who were waiting in the district of Suruç, Urfa in southeastern Turkey and wanted to cross the border were intervened with pepper gas and rubber bullets. In the meantime, some pictures allegedly showing ISIS militia crossing the border of Turkey were published.

President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made statements indicating that they equated PKK with ISIS. While the wounded coming from Kobanî were kept waiting on the border, the wounded from ISIS were treated at hospitals. Several news reports were reported in the press, saying "Kobanî fell." These news reports were denied every time.

After the HDP made a call to take to the streets against a possible massacre in Kobanî, thousands of people protested in Kurdish-majority provinces as well as Ankara and İstanbul. While left parties also supported these protests, deaths also occurred with the onset of police violence. Street conflicts ensued. 42 people lost their lives from October 6 to 12, 2014.

According to a report by the Human Rights Association (İHD), 46 people died, 682 people were wounded and 323 people were arrested in the protests held between September 7 and 12, 2014. As reported by the AA, 31 people lost their lives, 221 citizens and 139 police officers were wounded.

(AS/SD)