Against erdogan’s repression, solidarity with the HDP and the mayors under attack

Statement by Potere al popolo (Power to the People) from Italy:

On Monday 19st August, Turkey woked up, as it has often done under the government of the Sultan Erdoğan, under a cloud of repression.

The Minister of Internal Affairs had suspended the elected mayors in Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van, all elected from the ranks of the HDP last 31st March, under accusation of “ties with the PKK”, and substituted them with special commissioners. Whilst this was happening the country was the site of police operations in multiple cities, bringing 418 citizens into preventative detention, among them regional councillors.

In addition to this, sources described security forces surrounding the headquarters of the HDP in Ankara.

These occurrences yesterday were another stage of the coup that Erdoğan is carrying out amongst international indifference, with the EU and European governments able at the very most to mutter a few words of condemnation.

If there is a genuine will to stop Erdoğan in his spiral of repression, it needs to hit him where it hurts: the pocket. This means ending the supply of funds that are routinely used to strengthen his arsenal of repression used against the Kurdish people and planning attacks beyond the Turkish borders, like the attack on Afrin and, in general, Turkey’s expansionist desires in Rojava.

Solidarity with the suspended mayors and with the HDP, once again attacked by the repression of the “Sultan”!

21 August 2019