Statement from the Partido Lakas ng Masa in the Philippines:
PLM condemns the new wave of arrests of members of the People's Democratic Party in Turkey by the reactionary ultra-nationalist and anti-Kurdish government of President Erdogan, with the chief prosecutor in Ankara issuing arrest warrants for 82 more people on September 25. The HDP is the third-largest party in parliament. So far many of those in the list have been detained including the former deputy and Kars co-mayor Mr Ayhan Bilgen, former deputies Ms AylaAkat Ata, Mr Sirri Süreyya Önder, Mr Nazmi Gur, Ms Emine Ayna, Ms Beyza Ustun, Altan Tan, former party spokesperson Günay Kubilay, and HDP Central Executive Board member Mr Alp Altinörs, on the grounds of their role in the Kobane protests in Turkey on 6-8 October 2014. These protests were organised in solidarity with the Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria which was under siege by ISIS terrorists.
The Erdogan regime assisted ISIS in its genocidal rampage across Syria and Iraq and is carrying out ethnic cleansing against Kurds in Rojava, in northern Syria and the regime is now seeking revenge against the HDP for the defeat of the ISIS forces by the Kurdish fighters in Kobane. This is a campaign of assault against the HDP for its struggle in support of the self- determination of the Kurdish people and democratic rights in Turkey. Since 2015, about 16,000 HDP members and administrators have been detained.
27 September 2020