Marta Sömek 

 

ISTANBUL – EMEP Vice Chairperson Selma Gürkan, SODAP Co-Spokesperson Sevtap Akdağ and TÖP Speakers Board Member Perihan Koca made assessments for our agency regarding the indictment prepared within the scope of the closure case against HDP, the "accusations" against women and the atmosphere of oppression.

 

After the indictment prepared by the Supreme Court of Appeals was accepted by the Constitutional Court, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was sued for the second time. In the 843-page indictment prepared regarding the closure case, a political ban is request against 451 names, including HDP's previous term co-chairs and co-mayors.

 

In the indictment, even the Istanbul Convention banner was seen as a "criminal element", while all democratic actions and activities were presented as evidence of ‘’membership in the terrorist organization’’. We talked about the indictment and the atmosphere of repression with Labour Party (EMEP) Vice Chairperson Selma Gürkan, Socialist Solidarity Platform (SODAP) Spokesperson Sevtap Akdağ and Social Freedom Party (TÖP) Speakers Board Member Perihan Koca.

 

‘Instruction from Erdoğan’

 

Selma Gürkan, Vice Chairperson of the EMEP, stated that the closure case against the HDP was opened with the target by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli, and said: ‘’Erdoğan gave the instruction, now the judiciary has started its initiatives to operate the process for which signals, and instructions have been given.’’ Selma stated that they observed with the attack on HDP İzmir provincial building that the trial process, which was previously rejected due to deficiencies in the indictment, is not a planning limited to the judicial process.

 

‘All peace forces are under the target of political power’

 

Pointing out the closure case against the HDP as well as the attacks against HDP buildings, members and administrators, Selma continued her words as follows: ‘’It seems to be run through the HDP, but I can say that this government is a one-man rule, the presidential government system, their political regime is more authoritarian, and they want to crown it with an oppressive fascist political regime. It will be applied to HDP today and to other opposition parties tomorrow. While HDP is the target of the attack, workers, laborers, people, and all peace forces demanding rights, freedom and democracy are under the target of the political power. Above all, they plan to block the Kurdish people's demands based on equal rights and their struggle based on equal citizenship demands.’’

 

‘The government sees HDP as a threat to its political survival’

 

Socialist Solidarity Platform (SODAP) Spokesperson Sevtap Akdağ stated that the HDP's closure case, the murder of Deniz Poyraz and the government's targeting of the HDP are not a coincidence. Emphasizing that the government has long seen the HDP as a threat in terms of its own political survival and that it has been working in a very systematic way to demonize, criminalize and purge HDP in the eyes of the society, Sevtap made the following assessments: ‘’After the overthrow of the solution table, on June 7, the HDP, together with its democratic forces, created a focus on the people's longing for democracy and peace that could eliminate the climate of oppression, and this created fear in the government. A climate of chaos and fear was created. The issue of creating a climate of fear, which was also expressed in the confessions of the mafia leaders who organized the process, was very intense.’’

 

‘The intimidation efforts did not create the success they wanted’

 

Stating that the efforts to systematically destroy, ignore and purging the HDP are continuing, Sevtap noted that there are policies of great pressure and intimidation against the HDP from the media to the judiciary, from the parliamentary platform to the street. “Until now, all these intimidation efforts have not produced the success they wanted, neither the HDP has lost votes nor the HDP idea has been removed from the society,” she said. Sevtap said that the existing fear of power against the HDP, the common voice of the peoples, will continue as long as the HDP lives.

 

‘We have experienced many Ogün Samasts and Onur Gencers’

 

Referring to the Kobanê Political Genocide Trial, Sevtap said: ‘’We cannot enlighten the case that we call the Kobanê plot case because it is the people in the prosecutor's office and the judiciary who need to enlighten this case.’’ Pointing out that those who should reveal the people behind the shooter in the murder of Deniz Poyraz should also be the judiciary, Sevtap continued: ‘’We have experienced Ogün Samast and Onur Gencer a lot. That is why I cannot say that we are very hopeful for a serious questioning and clarification of how this political murder was carried out.’’

 

‘Attacks will increase’

 

Noting that she was one of the more than 400 politicians who were asked for a political ban, Sevtap concluded her words with the following sentences: ‘’The fact that these attacks have come one after the other and the discourse ‘these are your better days’ should be interpreted as meaning that the attacks against all democratic forces, especially the HDP, will increase in the coming days. As the forces of democracy, it is necessary to organize with a strong resistance against the attacks that will increase.”

 

‘The codes of the state are based entirely on the denial of the Kurdish people’

 

Stating that the closure case ‘’conforms to the internal mentality in terms of the institutionalization of the fascist regime’’, Social Freedom Party (TÖP) Speakers Board Member Perihan Koca said: ‘’They are trying to find a way to eliminate the deep crisis fight that is taking place in front of everyone in the state, and to find the formula for keeping the ruling class fractions that tend to drift together. Because the codes of this state are based entirely on the denial of the Kurdish people. The denial of the Kurdish people is the middle denominator of the governments. They also committed a murder in order to get into the atmosphere that was created after the June 7 elections, and it seems that they aimed much more.’’

 

‘A total resistance must be knitted’

 

Noting that the plans of the government did not work, Perihan said: ‘’The reflex of the people against the murder of Deniz Poyraz was alive and the people's forces ensured that this provocation attempt failed for now. But as we can see from the group meeting speech of Devlet Bahçeli, each sentence of which constitutes a separate crime, it is understood that they will not give up and will continue these attempts. There is no other way but to build an all-out resistance to us, that is to the people’s forces.’’

 

‘Crime elements will be held accountable’

 

Saying ‘’Our friends are people who defend the interests of the Kurdish people and all other peoples’’ regarding the politicians who were banned from politics, Perihan said that the government is sinking into crime and filth. Underlining that neither the Kurdish people nor the women nor the youth did not give up the struggle despite the increasing violence of the state, Perihan stated that all criminal elements will be held to account.