ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas on Thursday warned against inciting violence against his family, a day after his wife’s controversial interview with a Turkish broadcaster made her the target of some media outlets and politicians. “Let the lynching mobs, who targeted my family on screens last night, know that if a single member of my family is harmed you are responsible,” said Demirtas in a tweet on Thursday, as reference to television programs targeting his wife Basak Demirtas for comments she made to a broadcaster. Basak Demirtas appeared in a rare interview with Turkey’s opposition Fox TV on Wednesday, talking about her life after the detention of her husband in 2016. She also talked about Demirtas’ past as the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). “Selahattin has never said he was sorry for what he had done,” she said in the morning program. She also criticized Turkish authorities for not allowing her to meet with her jailed husband enough. “Our daughters have been unable to hug their father for 19 months.” Demirtas was jailed on November 4, 2016 for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He has also been accused of having a role in the death of 108 people during 2014 protests across Kurdish-majority areas in Turkey in support of the Kurdish city of Kobane in Syria after it was besieged by the Islamic State (ISIS). Hamza Dag, deputy leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was among those who took to social media and slammed Basak Demirtas’ comments as well as the broadcaster for allowing her to say that her husband is not sorry for his actions on the seventh anniversary of the Kobane incident. “This coverage was not a coincidence, but deliberate. Who are you with, Fox TV? Terrorism or Turkey?” he asked. Hours later, Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) said in a tweet that it has launched an investigation into the program as per its media law without mentioning which part of the interview was the subject of the probe. Pro-government outlets like CNN Turk and A Haber made Basak the subject of their hours-long programs late Wednesday, with some guests claiming she is being prepared to run for future elections or has a secret agenda. Basak Demirtas stood by her comments on Thursday, criticizing the coverage of her interview. “It means that five years of lies and slander can be crushed by an hour of truth. There is no need for such attacks, it should have been known that in the face of the truth, all the lies and the perceptions produced would not last forever,” she added. Pervin Buldan, co-chair of the HDP, showed her support for Demirtas’ wife. Mahsuni Karaman, who has been the Kurdish politician’s lawyer for years, said the attacks were unsuccessful fear mongering. “One goal is to scare the public. Yet no one is afraid. Not at all anymore.” Some Turkish officials claim that the HDP is the political wing of the PKK - an armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara has designated the PKK as a terrorist organization. The HDP has denied any organic links with the group. The Turkish government has cracked down on the HDP for years, jailing top officials, members and supporters.
