DEM Party MPs march to the Justice Ministry in protest against Kobanê case verdict

Duvar English

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party lawmakers on May 22 organized a march on the capital Ankara against the rulings of the Kobanê case.

In the final trial of the Kobanê case, a Turkish court has sentenced several Kurdish politicians, including Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ, Ahmet Türk, Gültan Kışanak, to prison.

The MPs first made a statement in the Turkish Parliament. In the statement read by the party's group deputy chairpersons Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and Sezai Temelli, it was emphasized that none of the defendants on trial were sentenced for being responsible for the deaths of those who lost their lives in Kobanê protests occurred in 2014.

“We do not see the release of the Feb. 28 Coup generals (from prison) at the same time as a coincidence. This is a tutelage regime which is being designed by the judiciary. The judiciary is trying to design the social opposition,” the pro-Kurdish party’s lawmakers said.

The deputies called for everyone to advocate together “that a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue is the only way for a democratic republic.”

After the statement in the parliament, DEM Party lawmakers marched to the Justice  Ministry with photographs of Kurdish politicians sentenced to prison.

What happened?

A Turkish court on May 16 handed out prison sentences to 28 Kurdish politicians.

Some 218 people were on trial, with 17 under custody since 2016 including then-deputies and co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The deputies were indicted after the Turkish Parliament voted to revoke their legislative immunities. 

The Kobanê protests took place between Oct. 6 and 8, 2014, and caused the deaths of dozens. Protesters flooded streets in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast at the time, outraged over the Turkish government's inaction in protecting Syrian Kurds as ISIS besieged Kobanê, across the Syrian border.