Detention warrants were issued by Ankara’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for a total of 82 people in seven provinces in Turkey. Police detained dozens of People’s Democratic Party (HDP) members, including Kars Co-Mayor Ayhan Bilgen, over 2014 Kobanî protests against the siege by ISIS of Kobanî.
HDP Group Deputy Chairman Meral Danış Beştaş spoke to MedyaNews about the latest operations on HDP members.
Beştaş stated: ”We have repeatedly presented submissions to the investigation to the Turkish National Assembly (TBMM) regarding the Kobanî incidents to clarify who is responsible, but all of them were rejected. One of the aims of this is to render the HDP politically ineffective by using an incident six years ago as an excuse”. She stated that the reason for the operations is to silence the HDP.
“The HDP is already faced with continuous operations, detentions, arrests and lawsuits”, she noted, adding: ”In the 7 June elections, we passed the threshold and prevented the government from taking power alone despite all the pressures exerted in the electioneering period. Systematic operations are being carried out against the HDP because they cannot silence the voices of those who voted for us. HDP has not given in to any pressure, it will not. HDP cannot be silenced”.