Pro-Kurdish HDP condemns 'politically-motivated' arrests in Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish security force raids on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Friday are “politically-motivated,” the party spokesperson told Rudaw. The authorities want to scare the party and its supporters, she asserted.

Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 82 people, including HDP officials, former parliamentarians, and a mayor, in relation to deadly October 2014 protests in Turkey after the Islamic State (ISIS) seized most of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane.

“The reasons for these operations are politically-motivated and the courts have become tools for this dirty and adversarial policy,” HDP spokesperson Ebru Gunay told Rudaw English via Whatsapp messenger. By targeting HDP, the government in Ankara harms the country’s democracy, she added.

The arrests are in connection with the 2014 Kobane protests that left 37 people dead, but Gunay denied HDP was responsible for the violence. “There is no evidence, though we know that the government and courts will not act as per evidence but as per their political opinions,” she said.

The party has asked the parliament many times to investigate the protests, but their calls were ignored because the government “knows that the truth is not in their favor. They know that the casualties were killed by people affiliated to the government,” said Gunay.

Turkish security forces responded to the 2014 protests with tear gas and water cannons. Gunay said 34 of the people killed were associated with HDP. Hundreds of protesters and security force members were also injured.

The arrest warrants were announced today by Ankara’s public prosecutor and related to acts theft, looting, attempted murder, and burning the Turkish flag during the protests.

As of Friday evening, at least 16 members of HDP have been arrested, Gunay said. Many of them were previously detained during local elections in March 2019. Gunay speculated that they were being targeted again because of HDP’s success in the elections. The government “wants to spread fear among the HDP supporters. They fail to understand from history, to know that the people and the HDP will not be afraid,” she said.

It is not clear why the arrest warrants are being issued now, six years after the protests. “No one can understand why the detentions are taking place now, while the incident took place six years ago,” Omer Faruk Gergerliogu, HDP lawmaker, told Rudaw English on Friday. “This means that there is no judicial rule in Turkey, but a political one.”

He claimed that the raids targeted Kurds.

Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said the arrests were “totally a legal process and we will monitor the developments.”

Some European political parties and Turkey’s main opposition condemned the arrests.

This is “yet another politically motivated attempt to silence” the HDP, stated the Party of European Socialists (PES), adding “The PES stands in solidarity with HDP and against this further crackdown on democratic opposition in Turkey.”

The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Group in the European Parliament also condemned the arrests. “Despite repeated messages from Europe and the international community, the Turkish authorities still continue their attack against pro-Kurdish politicians. The detention of these people, including former members of parliament, is another step backwards pushing Turkey even further away from the EU,” said S&D Group’s vice-president, Kati Piri.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s largest opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), called HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar, expressing his support and solidarity against what he described as a politically-motivated attack on HDP.

Sancar called on Turkey’s opposition parties to take a unified stance, saying “This attack on the HDP is actually an attack on the opposition.”

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