Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) spokesperson Ebru Günay highlighted her concerns over Turkey’s political agenda in a press statement that was made in the central office of the party.
She criticized the scope and nature of the operations that have been conducted as part of an investigation into the Democratic Society Congress (DTK). Warrants were issued to detain 101 people on the morning of 20 November as part of that investigation. Police raided addresses in Diyarbakır (Amed), Şırnak (Şirnex) and Adıyaman (Semsur) in Turkey.
According to DW, 72 people have been detained since then, under the scope of this investigation, and 113 addresses have been raided. Twenty four of those detained have been lawyers. Twenty one of them were released late in the evening on 20 November. Four other people were not detained on the grounds that they were infected with Covid-19.
HDP spokesperson Günay criticised the operation, noting the absurdity of conducting such repressive operations whilst publicly promoting “concepts such as ‘Law Reform’ and ‘justice'”, right after they implemented decisions and operations such as the ones she described, which reflected “unlawfulness”.
“The law is being destroyed”
Günay stated that the concept of just law was being destroyed: “What does it mean when houses of the lawyers, who are attending cases every hour in the courthouses and who know the prosecutors that have taken the detention decisions against them, have been raided at midnight without calling them to testify? It means little to society to talk about reform and justice in these circumstances. You are destroying justice and the law ever day. Release the lawyers ,whose job is to help people who have been subjected to injustice and ensure justice takes place immediately”, she stated.
Günay asserted that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ruling coalition had taken the country to the brink of the abyss. She said: “As a result of the ruling coalition parties, this crisis – including war expenses; a wastage economy with contractors cleaning out the country – has deep and structural roots. This crisis was revealed by the resignation of Berat Albayrak. Those in power face a crisis and are not successful. This is not a reform process but a hoax”.
The country is like “an open prison”
Günay was critical of the political orientation of those in power: “Robbing the state – using every means of the state to remove the Kurdish question by means of violence – and implementing an unprecedented fascism on Turkey’s people for the past five years, the AKP-MHP’s reform discourses are unravelling. Their time is over and they are undertaking rearguard actions”.
Referring to the operations and investigations that have been carried out against opponents in Turkey in recent months, the economic crisis, workplace homicides and femicides, mafia connections and racist murders, Günay said: “You have imprisoned everyone who is dissenting against you: you rule the whole country as an open prison. When things tend to change, when the economy crashes, when the society shouts out: ‘Enough, we cannot take it anymore, we cannot breathe’, you say that it is time to ‘reform’ the law and ‘democracy’. Is that so?
“You ignore the the deaths in prisons, tamper with the health of the country, take no precautions for workplace homicides and femicides, make threats, work arm-in-arm with the mafia, leave all overt racist murders unpenalized and then say: ‘Reform the economy and mobilize the law’. Is that so? AKP’s 18 years of governance and practice in not a period of ‘reform’ in practice, but one that has deformed social values. Your sins are beyond your height: You are no longer able to reform things. We will not pay for your sins”.
Günay stated that the crisis was the crisis of the palace and the AKP-MHP ruling coalition and added that: “It cannot be solved by ineffective regulations. Society will not tolerate the fake reform discourses”.
