Several commentators have reported that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s politics against the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) has involved trying to criminalise the HDP in various ways, even reportedly accusing it of forcing Kurdish youth to join the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
As a vigil of mothers continues in front of the HDP’s Diyarbakır building, there have been heated debates and discussions in which it has been alleged from some circles that these mothers were “paid” by the AKP government to hold this vigil in front of the HDP’s Diyarbakır office. The mothers holding a vigil in Diyarbakır have allegedly been paid, these circles suggest, to ask the HDP to account for their children who joined the PKK.
The HDP had already previously issued statements that they had no links to these young people who joined the PKK and warned the public that the AKP was actively sponsoring these mothers to engage in this vigil in an effort to manipulate their longings for their children into a pro-AKP propaganda exercise. There have reportedly been some families participating in the vigil who later revealed that they were actually motivated and even forced by government linked groups to stage this protest against the HDP.
A special team assigned by the Turkish state reportedly visited the family of Davut Polat, who has been missing for years. However, the family – who has not heard about their son for five years – thinks exactly the opposite of what the officials say or wanted them to say. Mother Mahiye Polat told MA that her son had previously been exposed to various forms of oppression by the state, including being arrested and tortured, even when he was a college student.
“He went to Istanbul for medical treatment and, there, he learned that he had been sentenced to five years in prison. He has been missing for around 20 years and I don’t know where he is now, but I ask the state about his situation”, Polat said.
She also stated that the gendarmerie have been coming to her house and forcing her to join the vigil that is being held in front of the HDP building. “The state never leaves us alone. They have been trying to make me a part of that protest in front of the HDP and ask for my son’s whereabouts there”, she said. “These people tell me: ‘We will provide you with anything you need’. The state should know where he is, not the HDP and not me”, she added.
“Even if I go in front of the HDP building”, she clarified, “I would ask the state, not the HDP, about the fate of my son. Even if they give me trillions, I will not stop asking the state about him”.
