Kurdish citizens staged protests across Turkey after a court sentenced Selahattin Demirtas, former co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and two-time presidential candidate, to 42 years in prison. .
To quell Kurdish anger, authorities in 20 states banned demonstrations, social gatherings and public events for four days.
Demirtas, 51, has been in prison since 2016. 3rd place Despite being imprisoned, he won the 2018 Turkish presidential election. Shortly after that election, a Turkish court finally found him guilty of ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a violent Kurdish separatist group.
Selahattin Demirtas during a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, October 28, 2015. (Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Demirtas was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Base of He has been charged with dozens of criminal charges, many related to the 2014 Islamic State attack on the Kurdish-populated city of Kobane in northeastern Syria.
Turkish Kurds wanted the government to establish a corridor from Turkey’s Kurdistan region to the besieged city so they could receive humanitarian and military aid. The Turkish government refused, infuriating Turkish Kurds whose fighting in Kobani was literally visible on the horizon from their homes.
Turkish and Syrian Kurds destroy the border fence to enter Kobani in neighboring Syria during a demonstration near the Murshitpinar border crossing in Sanliurfa province on September 26, 2014. (BULENT KILIC/AFP, Getty Images) via)
The siege of Kobane by ISIS has become massive. humanitarian disaster, The town was almost destroyed and thousands of people were killed or displaced. Turkish citizens, who accused the government of not doing enough to help Kobani, marched in the streets to denounce President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who remains in power to this day.
Erdoğan did not take kindly to such criticism, and the police excessive force Attempts were made to quell the riot as sectarian disputes among some of the demonstrators escalated into street brawls. In the end, 51 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Vladimir Smirnov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo, via AP)
Demirtas supported the protests on social media, but spoke out against the violence at the time and was instrumental in ending the protests in Kobani. Nevertheless, a court in the Ankara suburb of Sincan on Thursday found him guilty of aiding in inciting riots and “attacking the integrity of the state.”
“There is no evidence against me. This is a case of political vendetta. We are not legally arrested. We are all political hostages.” Demirtas Said During court testimony in 2023.
In addition to Demirtas, there were 107 other defendants in the class trial. One of them, also former HDP co-chairman Figen Yüksekdag, was sentenced to 30 years and three months in prison. The other is Ahmet Turk, a veteran Kurdish politician who was just elected mayor of the town of Mardin in March.The Turks are declared Up to 10 years in prison.
Tancer Bakirkhan, current co-chairman of the HDP (renamed DEM during Demirtas’ years of imprisonment), called the verdict a “black stain on the history of Turkish judiciary” and a “legal massacre.” he accused.
Bakirkhan accused Erdogan’s government of using the courts to “erasure” pro-Kurdish parties from Turkish politics.
“We do not accept this verdict,” Bakirkhan said. “Mr. Selahattin, Mr. Figen and those on trial in the Kobane case have been acquitted in the hearts of Kurds, Turks, workers, women and young people. They are free.”
Özg Ozer, leader of Turkey’s largest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said: Said The sentences handed down Thursday against Demirtas and others were an effort by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to use the courts to quash political dissent.
He said of the Kobani prosecution: “It is a politicized case in every respect, including the length of time, the timing, and the fact that the verdict hearing will be postponed until after the election.”
“If you look at the sentences given to Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, there are no acceptable aspects of what they were accused of and the sentences they received,” he said.
President Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered. huge loss In the 2024 local elections, Erdogan has begun to “soften” his position and talk of reconciliation with his rivals, but the pledges made by opposition leaders such as Ozer and Bakirkhan are less clear than Demirtas. His dishonesty was exposed by the politicized convictions of his fellow defendants.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Thursday’s conviction is “the latest move in a campaign of persecution that deprives predominantly Kurdish voters of their chosen representatives, undermines democratic processes, and criminalizes legitimate political speech.”
“The use of sham criminal proceedings to remove democratically elected Kurdish politicians from politics will do nothing to end the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK. “No,” said Hugh Williamson, director of Europe and Central Asia at HRW.
HRW said the Kobani trial was a clear violation of international human rights standards, as the case file contained “baseless generalized allegations” by anonymous witnesses and “arbitrary” procedures.
AFP investigated return wistfully Thursday’s Demirtas Story recalled that negotiations with the banned PKK leader appeared to be nearing an end to the 2016 separatist rebellion — as President Erdogan felt threatened by Mr. Demirtas’ rising popularity. Until a platoon of 200 police officers was sent to arrest Mr. Demirtas. His home in the Kurdish enclave of Diyarbakir. Since then, President Erdogan has sought to ban all pro-Kurdish parties as secret allies of the PKK.
