Yüksekdağ’s speech at the first hearing of the main case on grounds of which she was arrested:
We clearly see that today's trial is not a judgment in the sense of politics and history. It’s a political offense. Just now, before our eyes, the government intervened with the court and the international delegation was removed from court room. They talk about law, but everyone knows that this process, my trial, our trials have nothing to do with law.
They demand 100years for me! If I had more lifetimes, I would still do the same things. We have a cause of democracy and peace, worth of a century.
When there was bloodshed, they said “If you'd given 400 MPs, all these wouldn't have happened”. At the time, we knew we'd end up courts. There was a lifeline for citizens of Turkey to hold on to. They thought if they broke down this lifeline, the problem would be solved. There are 6 million citizens who put their signature under my words. How do you fit 6 million people in courtrooms?
Didn't you tell us 'Practice politics in the parliament'. Well we did. I said all of those words in the dossiers at the parliament. Those who backed off the words they said in the parliament should be held accountable. Those who wasted Kurds' time, where are they?
Justice appears only on the AKP sign (as a word).Turkey's seen many bad governments, but AKP's the first to transform justice into a word on a sign.
We believe that the understanding that brought us to the courtroom should be prosecuted, not the words we said.
If we have established an organization, if we have been its executives, we will defend it. Look how I’m defending the HDP.
There's nothing more legitimate than a call to take the streets. We did make the call, we'll do it again. The government did it as well. The AKP government's trying to cover up its own crime. We know which paramilitary forces were in the streets on October 6-8, 2014.
4 July 2017