ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Tens of thousands of people, mostly Kurds, are taking part in a massive Newroz celebration in Istanbul on Saturday, at a time when the country’s top court is considering shutting down Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish opposition party. Newroz celebrations hold a particular importance for Kurds in Turkey, who were not allowed to celebrate the occasion that signals the beginning of spring for decades and are facing increasing pressure from the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent years. “We are celebrating Newroz today despite going through an unusual time as some of our parliamentarians are losing their immunity and criminal charges have been filed against some others,” Ali Kenanoglu, a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentarian from Istanbul told Rudaw’s Rawin Sterk at the gathering in Istanbul’s Yenikapi neighborhood. Thousands of people can be seen in the background holding HDP flags. Organizers said they expected as many as a million people to join in the celebrations. “Whatever those who wield power want to do, let them do it. They won’t be able to affect the morale of the Kurdish people. They won’t be able to affect the will of the Kurdish people," said Kenanoglu. On Wednesday, Turkey’s top prosecutor filed an indictment in the Constitutional Court demanding the closure of the HDP. The 609-page filing from Chief Prosecutor Bekir Sahin claims that HDP members have attempted to “disrupt and eliminate” the unity of the Turkish state through their statements and activities. It also seeks to ban 600 HDP members from engaging in politics for five years. On the same day, Omer Gergerlioglu, an outspoken lawmaker for the HDP, was expelled from the parliament for a tweet he posted in 2016. Selahattin Demirtas, the imprisoned former co-chair of the HDP shot back on Friday and said that his party would not give up the struggle. “Regardless of the result, we will never deviate from the path of democracy and peace. We will continue our struggle through the law and we will definitely win,” said Demirtas in a tweet posted by his lawyers. The HDP has been under pressure for years, accused of being the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a charge the party denies. Members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have called for the party’s closure. Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization, and arrests hundreds of HDP supporters, members, and officials on alleged links to the group, including Demirtas and his former co-chair Figen Yuksekdag, in November 2016. “We have the people’s backing and we will not shy away from defying them [the government]. This is politics. The HDP is not a shop for them to shut it down,” Kenanoglu told Rudaw on Saturday. The mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu, a fierce critic of Erdogan, from the Republican People's Party will not attend the event because of other commitments, former HDP parliamentarian Ferhad Encu, who was part of the gathering’s organising committee, told Rudaw on Saturday. Over five million Kurds are estimated to be living in Istanbul out of a population of around 16 million. “It has been four to five years that there has been a severe attack on our party, members are detained and the language of Kurds is not recognized […] Fascism is continuing against the Kurdish people,” Encu said. “We want freedom, peace and reconciliation. The message today is that we as Kurds protect our existence, we will defend our party.” Pervin Buldan, the co-chair of HDP, struck a defiant tone speaking to the crowd in Istanbul on Saturday, saying her party would not surrender and bow to state oppression. “We have come here for freedom, democracy and brotherhood of the people,” Buldan said. The veteran Kurdish politician said that the party still sees the 2013 message from the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan as the roadmap for resolving the Kurdish issue in Turkey and a manifesto for freedom. Buldan read the message from the Kurdish imprisoned leader Ocalan, which was interpreted as a ceasefire declaration for the PKK to lay down its arms and pursue peaceful channels to achieve further rights for the Kurdish population in Turkey. “This manifesto is still in our heart,” Buldan said. Ocalan, who has been in prison since 1999, has not been in touch with his lawyers for months, causing rumors to spread recently that he may have died in prison. “Isolation is not the answer… for as long as we breathe, we will struggle,” Buldan said.
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