'We won't surrender': Scores detained as HDP marks fifth year of mass arrest of MPs

Photo: MA

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Five years ago today, police detained many Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) politicians, including its then co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

As almost all the arrested politicians are still behind bars on "terrorism" charges, the HDP marked the anniversary of the mass raids in several cities, mainly in the predominantly Kurdish-populated eastern and southeastern regions.

Police intervened in demonstrations in Ağrı and Van, detaining many people, Mesopotamia Agency (MA) reported. The six detainees in Ağrı included the party's provincial co-chairs, Semra Özden and Erol Berke.

HDP members were prevented from gathering in Van due to a demonstration ban in the province that has been in effect for nearly five years. Police battered and detained many people in Van, according to MA.

When a group of HDP members in Dersim, including MP Alican Önlü, wanted to make a statement for the press on Sanat Street, police said they wouldn't be allowed to do so.

MP Önlü said they were "not the police but forces who get orders from the [presidential] palace."

HDP members and supporters held demonstrations in Diyarbakır, Mardin, Şırnak, Adıyaman, Batman, Siirt, Adana, Mersin, and İskenderun.

"A coup against the people"

The HDP Headquarters also released a statement about the issue, which it called "a coup against the will of the people."

It pointed out the ongoing crackdown on the party with hundreds of its members, MPs and mayors sent behind bars over the past five years.

"It has been confirmed with the ECtHR judgment, which was directly about this coup, and the occasional statements by government members that these operations were not legal but political," said the HDP.

"The November 4 coup process started when Justice and Development Party Chair [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan on July 28, 2015, gave the order that '[legislative] immunities should be lifted and they should pay a price.'

"There is no legal and judicial process. There are the government's orders and partisan judges and prosecutors who lined up to fulfill these orders.

"Since November 4, we have warned everyone that this unlawfulness will not be limited to our party. Unfortunately, it is not limited to our party and municipalities and is expanded to include universities, associations and civil society organizations."

"We have never surrendered"

Turkey's economic and political crises deepened after the AKP government ended the "resolution process" to the Kurdish question and implemented the "war plans" in 2015, the HDP asserted.

"Those who can't deal with the HDP's politics think that they can intimidate it with oppression, pressure, and the judiciary," it said. "We have never surrendered to opression." 

In the June 2015 elections, AKP had lost the parliamentary majority for the first time since 2002 and a Kurdish issue-focused party, the HDP, surpassed the 10 percent election threshold for the first time.

Months of turmoil, including urban conflict between the security forces and pro-Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) groups in several Kurdish majority provinces, followed the June 2015 election.

The AKP declared the end of the "resolution process" in August 2015 and got a sweeping victory in the snap election in November, regaining its parliamentary majority.

Since then, the HDP has faced a massive crackdown with dozens of its former MPs sent behind bars and 48 of its mayors replaced with government-appointed trustees on "terrorism" charges.

Also, 108 members of the party, including former MPs, are facing aggravated life sentences for having allegedly organized the deadly "Kobanî protests" in 2014. The party also has a closure case against it. (DŞ/VK)