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One hundred and eight HDP politicans, including the jailed former co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, who are being tried in the Kobanî trials, are being accused of all the deaths that occured during the 6-8 October 2014 Kobanî protests in Turkey in this Kobani case.
“We’re many following closely from the EP (European Parliament) the Kobani trial starting today against 108 individuals, including leading members of HDP (the Peoples’ Democratic Party) & ex co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. Criminalising legitimate, democratic opposition is not the way. #SolidarityWithHDP,” Amor said on Twitter, mentioning the EP’s and HDP’s official Twitter accounts.
Amor is a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the EP. The S&D Group in the European Parliament previously condemned, on 25 September 2020, the crackdown on the HDP, following the initial news concerning the ‘Kobani investigation’, when Ankara prosecutors had decided to detain 82 people in seven provinces under an investigation into the protests of 2014, known as ‘the 6-7 October events’ in Turkey.
“I express my deep concern about this new crackdown campaign against HDP members on alleged involvement in events dating back to 2014″, Amor said regarding the Kobani indictment. He added: “This is simply projecting the de-facto state of emergency towards the past, to a period even previous to the failed coup attempt. Turkish authorities seem determined to establish some kind of overall retroactive state of emergency in order to further suppress opposition and any critical voices. Former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş is also accused of similar involvement in these events and six years later, he is still in prison – against the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights – and even still waiting for an indictment!
“Detainees include current Mayor of Kars, Ayhan Bilgen, one the very few remaining HDP mayors who hadn’t yet been removed from office by the central government. If he was to be replaced by a trustee, it would be the umpteenth attack against the democratic will of the people, as expressed in the last local elections”, he stated.
