Defenders of Peace and Democratic Politics Cannot Be Punished
17 May 2024
In the Kobane Case, where 108 people, including former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, are on trial, Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court sentenced 24 politicians to prison sentences exceeding 400 years in total in the hearing held on 16 May 2024. With this verdict, we believe that the judiciary in Turkey is once again being instrumentalized to silence and punish dissenters.
In the Kobane Case, the court found the politicians on trial in relation to the violent incidents that took place in many cities during the demonstrations in 2014, known as the “6-8 October Events,” not guilty, but ruled that the politicians who were HDP Central Executive Committee members committed “the crime of disrupting the unity and integrity of the state by committing the crime of incitement to crime.” While the politicians are not responsible for the alleged crimes (incidents of violence), it is not clear from the verdict which crime they committed.
Despite the findings of the European Court of Human Rights in the Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ judgments that the HDP cannot be held responsible for “acts of violence” and therefore the arrests of the co-chairs and politicians were politically motivated, the relevant judgments have not been implemented; millions of voters have been deprived of democratic representation and the rights of politicians to conduct politics and their freedom of expression have been violated with these trials against elected officials and executives of the HDP.
İHD believes that yesterday’s verdict, which is contrary to domestic and international legal norms, jeopardizes democracy, human rights and personal freedoms in Turkey. İHD would like to stress that it is a requirement of reconciliation, peace, justice and law that all politicians on trial in the Kobane Case are acquitted of all charges by applying the ECtHR judgments in order to produce and implement policies to end the ongoing armed conflict and violence.
The latest politically motivated verdict in the Kobane Case has disrupted the climate of reconciliation that the peoples need. It is a concrete indication that the steps expected to be taken by the state to resolve the Kurdish issue are once again sacrificed to pro-security policies. With the verdict in this case, peace advocates, those who advocate for a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue, women, LGBTI+, human rights defenders, those who oppose ISIS genocide and socialists have been punished.
İHD calls on to the state and the government: These lands need reconciliation and peace. The hundred-year-old Republic must end its policy of rejection and denial. The demands of Kurds, Alevis, women, ethnic and religious minorities for equal citizenship must be recognized and peaceful policies that will allow for a new social contract that meets these demands must be adopted. The policy of intimidating dissidents through the judiciary must end.
As human rights defenders, we will continue to follow the Kobane Case, which was not initiated and finalized in accordance with the rules of law. We will persistently continue our demands for peace.
Human Rights Association