Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), suspended its activities in the country's parliament after its joint leaders were arrested. In the early morning hours of 4 November, police in Turkey took into custody 10 members of the HDP, including its co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and FigenYüksekdağ after they refused to testify about alleged crimes linked to “terrorist propaganda.” Demirtaş's home in Diyarbakir was circled by police officers while he tweeted about it: “Police officers are at my door in Diyarbakir with an arrest warrant.” Simultaneously in Ankara, Yüksekdağ and nine parliamentarians were also detained. “The jailing of HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and FigenYüksekdağ, along with eight others, is an assault on the right to political representation and participation for millions of voters — arresting him is equal to arresting everyone who voted for him — and defies fundamental principles of any country that claims to be democratic and based on rule of law and human rights,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) Turkey Director Emma Sinclair-Webb told Al-Ahram Weekly in interview. The charismatic leader Demirtaş was taken to Edirne Prison in southwest of Turkey. Video footage that went viral showed him landing in a military helicopter on a sports field near the prison, escorted by counterterrorism police. Three deputies — Ziya Pir, İmam Taşçıer and Sırrı Süreyya Önder — were released on probation early Friday. Demirtaş's first statement after his arrest was sent to the public via his lawyer. “These tyrannical times will come to an end in the face of our resistance. Those who think they can break our will are only wreaking their own misery with these cheap plots. We will sustain our democratic political struggle regardless of the circumstances. We will continue to reiterate our call for peace. We convey our deepest love and affection to all our friends,” Demirtaş said in his statement. In a speech at Sağlık Bilimleri University in İstanbul Sunday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he does not care about being portrayed as a dictator in the Western press. “They (the Western press) will make caricatures of us in newspapers, but we will not take a step back. They should make no efforts in vain; we know who they are. They call me a dictator, but I don't care. It goes in one ear, out the other,” he said. “Erdoğan really seems to be not caring what the West thinks. The ongoing purge against academics, journalists and lately, opposition politicians is against the law. After the coup attempt, Erdogan and Putin met several times and expressed a new kind of ‘friendship', both in economic and political issues as well as sharing intelligence,” Turkish journalist and author Mehveş Evin told the Weekly, adding that Erdoğan thinks he doesn't need the West anymore. “However, a significant portion of Turkish people care about the West and would not want to be led by a dictator. Generally, society is deeply concerned about the growing dictatorship,” Evin said. Over the past month the Turkish government has extended its crackdown on Kurds; it has removed 30 Kurdish mayors from office, suspended more than 11,000 teachers from Kurdish regions and shut at least 20 Kurdish media outlets. That aside, another mass arrest took place; at least 13 journalists were taken into custody in predawn raids, including Murat Sabuncu, editor of the country's leading secular newspaper, Cumhuriyet. With this, the government has shuttered at least 120 news outlets since July's failed coup. “Murat is my colleague and friend, as well as former editor Can Dündar and the other imprisoned journalists working for Cumhuriyet. I was waiting for this to happen, because for Erdoğan, Cumhuriyet is an important newspaper he couldn't control. They published news such as the arms transport from the Turkish government to jihadi organisations. Now, they are accused of ‘helping' the coup attempt by the Gulenist organisation. This is hilarious! Prosecutors' questions were based upon hearsay and some pro-governmental or nationalist writers' accusations,” Evin told the Weekly, adding that over 124 journalists are in prison. “We all want them to be freed immediately.” Turkish officials defended their actions on that black Friday saying that Kurdish officials violated Turkish law by refusing to testify in a terrorism investigation. HDP officials rejected that explanation, saying the crackdown was politically motivated and had no legal basis. “The lifting of parliamentary immunity back in May was directed primarily at the HDP, with the immunity of a few parliamentarians from other parties thrown in as a token gesture. The government and President Erdogan's intention was to crackdown on the HDP, to be able to get rid of its leadership and members on trumped up terrorism charges for activities like political speeches. To our knowledge, there is no concrete evidence of involvement in activities that could be described as terrorism or logistical support for armed groups. As such the crackdown on the HDP is politically motivated and disenfranchises millions of voters who voted for the party in the November 2015 general election,” commented Sinclair-Webb. Turkish police used force to intervene in the sit-in in front of Diyarbakır Courthouse to protest the detention of HDP deputies. Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chairperson Sebahat Tuncel, who was taken to a hospital, has been arrested by a Diyarbakır court. “Sebahat Tuncel's arrest is a continuation of the process and aimed at disabling the DBP, the sister party of the HDP,” Sinclair-Webb told the Weekly. The day HDP parliamentarians were arrested, authorities interfered with Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to slow communication in and from Turkey. The HDP supports greater rights for Turkey's ethnic minorities and increased autonomy for the majority Kurdish southeast of the country. The party is closely tied to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Several of the MPs arrested were previously involved in peace talks between the government and the PKK, talks that collapsed in March 2015. As prime minister, Erdogan was seen as an ally of Kurds. But a peace process for him now is impossible. “After the 7 June 2015 elections, the HDP gained a record of 13 per cent of votes and declared they wouldn't let Erdoğan change Turkey's political system into a presidential one. Since Erdoğan's AKP would not be the majority government party, they denounced the result and recalled the elections. Meanwhile, the peace process was thrown to the wind as the army started “terrorist operations” in Kurdish cities where the HDP was strong. Fresh elections brought Erdoğan back his majority government. While the PKK continued attacks, special operation forces killed Kurdish civilians and destroyed several neighbourhoods. Tensions grew during winter, and then came the coup attempt. Erdoğan is teaming up with the ultranationalist party to obtain his presidential system, meaning full power and control on all matters and bypassing parliament. “Basically, we can say that Erdoğan decided to turn his back on Kurds, because playing the nationalist card made him stronger,” Turkish journalist Mehves Ervin told the Weekly. HDP deputies spoke at a press conference held in front of their headquarters on black Friday afternoon regarding the detentions. Journalists were prevented entry into the street leading to the building and deputies were forced to try make their voice heard through the social media. They all made it clear that their call for solidarity was not for their own support but to prevent civil war and save democracy. “There was never any question that our friends who were arrested would try to run from the law. The reason we did not go in to the public prosecutor to give depositions was so that the whole world could know and everyone could see the coup conditions that exist in this country. The attempt to portray the arrests as an attempt to forestall escape is merely part of the ongoing dirty propaganda and smear campaign of the government's media. In the end, this country will overcome these coup conditions. It has experienced coups in the past. In the past, too, there were interventions and obstacles to political life. Just as those days passed, so too will these days. But they will leave a black stain on Turkish political history,” HDP spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen remarked. HDP supporters and Kurds in different countries of the world organised marches and protests expressing their anger towards the operation against Kurdish politicians in Turkey. Kati Piri, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, called for the suspension of EU membership negotiations with Turkey following the crackdown. She described the detentions as “nonsense” and said Turkey is fast becoming a dictatorship.
