Turkey: Over 80 Kurdish HDP, DBP members detained in Turkey’s southeast

September 20, 2015 By administrator

DHA Photo

BATMAN – Doğan News Agency

As many as 85 officials from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Unity Party (DBP), including the mayor of the southeastern province of Batman and his deputy, have been detained after they attempted to enter a military security zone in Batman’s Sason district.

Batman Mayor Sabri Özdemir, deputy mayor Gülistan Akel and HDP Batman provincial head Rojda Sürücü along with others were detained by gendarmerie forces on Sept. 19 after they attempted to enter a military security zone where an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant was killed in Sason’s Kelhasan village on Sept. 19.

Among the 85 detained were Beşiri district Mayor Mustafa Öztürk, Gercüş district Mayor Abdulkerim Kaya, İki Köprü town Mayor Osman Karabulut, Batman Municipality Assembly President Salih Altun and DBP Batman provincial head Mehmet Candemir.

Behçet Kara, a resident of Kelhasan, where a military-imposed curfew is in effect, said residents of the village wanted the curfew to be lifted and they hoped for to return to normalcy.

“We wish for peace and democracy,” Kara added.

Some of the people detained were on a minibus heading to Sason when it was stopped at a checkpoint placed by the Yanıkkaya Gendarmerie Command to deny entry to the district.

Soldiers gave chairs to the women who got off the minibus when the weather became hot.

Turkey has seen a rise in violence with a spate of terrorist acts in recent months that have left scores dead and injured.

The Turkish military has declared a large number of areas in the country’s eastern and southeastern provinces as “military security zones” in a preemptive action against violent attacks.

Source: hurriyetdailynews.com

September/20/2015

Turkey’s HDP opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas may face prosecution

September 10, 2015 By administrator

The leader of the Turkish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas may face prosecution on charges of insulting Turkey’s president and inciting violence in the country.

On Wednesday, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir submitted a petition to Turkey’s Justice Ministry, demanding that Demirtas be taken to court over what was called offending Recep Tayyip Erdogan and spreading terror propaganda.

The prosecutor’s office, however, did not explain which of Demirtas’ words or actions were deemed as criminal.

The HDP leader has immunity as a member of the Turkish parliament, and thus the legislative body is required to vote on any possible investigation or prosecution in case the Turkish judiciary decides to sue him.

The petition came hours after Demirtas, a member of Turkey’s Kurdish community, warned the government in Ankara of the potential breakout of a civil war in the country, saying it is the people’s right to respond to those who attempt to burn their homes, businesses, and party buildings with “proportional” force.

“Everyone should use proportional means to defend themselves,” he said during a press conference in Diyarbakir, adding, “You have got to force them to regret what they do.”

Demirtas made the remarks following a night of nationalist protests in the capital, Ankara, and elsewhere, during which several HDP offices and shops belonging to Kurds were set on fire. The supporters of Erdogan also attacked the office of the country’s leading newspaper Hurriyet Daily News in Istanbul.

Turkish nationalists accuse the HDP of being the political wing of the militant group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has recently been engaged in deadly clashes with the country’s army.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.

There has been renewed conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces since July when Turkey began launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq after a Daesh bomb attack left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on July 20.

Source: presstv.com

Turkey: Elected HDP walk to the town of Cizre blockaded

September 10, 2015 By administrator

Wednesday, 9 September, a delegation from the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas including the Co-Chair, two ministers and several MPs began way to Cizre, to support the people of this city blockaded and under the state of emergency regime. However, out of Midyat / Mardin, the convoy was stopped soon after by the police acting on the orders of the Turkish Minister of the Interior.

Ignoring the prohibition to move forward, the Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas HDP, said that the delegation would continue his journey on foot. “By decision of the Prime Minister, we are blocked at 90 km from Cizre and prevented from leaving Midyat. However, we can not abandon the people of Cizre to death. Together with Ministers and Deputies, we will reach Cizre walk. “

For over six days that the town of Cizre suffered the repression of the Turkish security forces. So far, eight civilians were killed and many others wounded by gunmen elite police snipers on rooftops. For fear of being targeted by snipers, people dare not leave their homes. Those who come out, even if only to buy bread, are killed or injured. In the latter case, they can neither go to the hospital or to have the assistance of an ambulance.

A man aged 80 died for lack of medical supplies. Moreover, the body of a 6-year-old girl killed in the Nur district is maintained by his parents in a freezer, unable to bury. Countless are snipers on rooftops ambushed and continue to terrorize the people, preventing them from going outside, to take their wounded to hospital and even to bury their dead.

Because of the seriousness and urgency of the situation, an HDP delegation decided to enter in Cizre in solidarity with the inhabitants of the besieged city, to try to end the curfew and the state Emergency and to investigate and testify about the atrocities committed against civilians.

Given the silence of the international community to terrorism Turkish forces against Kurdish civilians, it is up to the democratic forces and the population of the town of Cizre support and respond to the most urgent needs.

We call upon the international media to cover this crucial peace march. Distance from Midyat Cizre is 97 km, which requires a step of about 20 hours.

The Kurdistan National Congress

Thursday, September 10, 2015,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Turkish fascism out of hiding: Kurdish HDP headquarters, local office, shops attacked in central Turkey

September 8, 2015 By administrator

AA photo

A number of anti-terror marches in Turkey turned violent when the headquarters of Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Ankara, as well as its office in another Central Anatolian city were attacked by nationalist protesters on Sept. 8.

Dozens of demonstrators pelted the HDP headquarters in Ankara with stones, before they were dispersed by police. Police detained one protester over the attack, according to CNN Türk channel.

In the neighboring province of Kırşehir, HDP’s local office was attacked by another group and its flag was lowered, replaced by Turkish flag as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters marched for a demonstration entitled “Damn Terrorism.”

The march turned violent when around 150 people in the crowd set fire to four shops owned by Kurdish businessmen, according to Turkish media.

The fire, which destroyed the four shops, was put out by fire brigades without causing casualties.

Turkey: HDP leader Demirtaş warns citizens not to spy on neighbors for money

August 31, 2015 By administrator

HDP Co-Chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş. (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Ali Ünal)

Co-chairperson of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has criticized a recent law rewarding people who inform on terrorists in a sum of up to TL 4 million, warning citizens not to spy on their neighbors in exchange for money.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Demirtaş underlined the fact that Turkey has one of the largest militaries of the NATO member countries, in addition to police, gendarmerie and intelligence units.

“How can a country that has been claiming to be so big and powerful become desperate in spite of its all [security] forces and look to spying?” Demirtaş said. “My advice to all citizens is to not ever spy on your neighbors for money… Our people should turn down this call.”

According to a law that was published in the Official Gazette on Monday, people who inform on terrorists, help to have them detained, or reveal their identity anonymously will be rewarded with up to TL 200,000, an award that can be increased up to a total of TL 4 million with the approval of the Interior Ministry.

The Interior Ministry will reward citizens who inform on terrorists as long as they are not involved in the crime of terrorism that they report and are not public officers or village guards. People who report terrorists can file an application for the reward with the concerned provincial police department.

The amount of the award will be determined according to the information, the crime that is exposed or the terrorist who is reported. The upper limit for the reward is TL 200,000; however, this amount can be multiplied twenty-fold, reaching to as much as TL 4 million.

HDP Leaders Meet US, European Envoys Amid Tension with AKP

July 31, 2015 By administrator

Co-chairs of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas (Source: Hurriyet Daily News)

ANKARA (Hurriyet Daily News)—The co-leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have met with foreign ambassadors in Ankara to inform them about recent tensions with the Turkish government, as clashes between militants and security officials have intensified in recent days across Turkey.

Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag met with Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Ali Reza Bikdeli on July 29, with US Envoy John Bass and UK Ambassador Richard Moore on July 30, and with the ambassadors of EU countries on July 31, the party said in a written statement.

The meetings come at a time when HDP leadership is under intense pressure from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has accused the group of having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). This pressure is being further leveled as summaries of proceedings on a number of HDP lawmakers, including Demirtas and Yuksekdag, have been introduced to parliament in a move that could presage prosecution for the pair.

In response to AKP’s increased pressure on Demirtas’s and Yuksekdag’s party, which won 80 seats in parliament last month effectively ending AKP’s 13-year majority rule, the HDP has filed a criminal complaint against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for using their influence over judicial acts against its party officials.

“Prosecutors have launched operations that resulted in the detention and arrest of party officials after President Erdogan’s and Prime Minister Davutoglu’s statements that they had given instructions. As a result of these operations and according to the data provided to the Peoples’ Democratic Party, 1,033 have been detained and 125 of them have been arrested without concrete evidence since July 24,” the petition issued by HDP read.

Recalling consecutive statements by Erdogan and Davutoglu against Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, the petition said these statements were directly influencing judicial independence and impartiality.

Influencing the judiciary was a crime under article 277 of the Turkish Penal Code, the statement read.

Demirtas’s and Yuksekdag’s meetings with envoys were focused on the ongoing political tension between the AKP and the HDP, as well as escalating tension between the army and the PKK in the southeastern Anatolian region.

Demirtas, speaking to the media on July 31, underlined the need for a resumption of dialogue between the PKK and the government to reach a settlement of the Kurdish issue. “The peace process should be restarted although it has been going very slowly in the last three years. Dialogue is not something humiliating. Not for the PKK either. Instead of calls for surrender, calls for dialogue are more humane,” Demirtas said.

“As the people of Turkey, we should say, ‘Remove your hands from the trigger, solve this issue at the table.’ Pushing democratic political channels to the end in such periods is part of the settlement. Taking about party closures and the removal of immunities would only block these democratic political channels,” he added.

Stating that he will meet with the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu next week over these issues, Demirtas said, that “our doors are open for even those who fully ignore us. We’ll knock on any doors for peace. These are the views of our party, not my personal views. We should focus on peace rather than elections. Otherwise going to elections is easy.”

HDP files criminal complaint against Erdoğan, Davutoğlu

July 31, 2015 By administrator

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has filed a criminal complaint against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for using their influence over judicial acts against its party officials.

“Prosecutors have launched operations that resulted in the detention and arrest of party officials after President Erdoğan’s and Prime Minister Davutoğlu’s statements that they had given instructions. As a result of these operations and according to the data provided to the Peoples’ Democratic Party, 1,033 have been detained and 125 of them have been arrested without concrete evidence since July 24,” the petition issued by the HDP read.

Recalling consecutive statements by Erdoğan and Davutoğlu against HDP co-chairpersons Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, the petition said these statements were directly influencing judicial independence and impartiality.

The petition said influencing the judiciary was a crime under article 277 of the Turkish Penal Code.

Source: hurriyetdailynews.com

Turkish military campaign aims to prevent Kurdish unity in Syria: HDP co-chair

July 30, 2015 By administrator

ANKARA – Reuters

The main aim of Turkey’s recent military operations in northern Syria and Iraq is to prevent Kurdish territorial unity and not to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition HDP said on July 30.

In an interview with Reuters, Selahattin Demirtaş accused President Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of dragging Turkey into conflict in revenge for the AKP losing its majority in a June 7 general election.

That election saw the HDP win enough votes to enter parliament as a party for the first time, ending more than a decade of single-party rule in the NATO member country.

“The AK Party is dragging the country into a period of conflict, seeking revenge for the loss of its majority in the June election,” Demirtaş told Reuters in the capital Ankara.

“HDP passing the threshold and the AK Party losing its parliamentary majority are being used as a pretext for war.”

Turkey launched near-simultaneous air strikes on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq and ISIL fighters in Syria last Friday, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has called a “synchronised fight against terror”.

But its assaults on the PKK have so far been much heavier than its strikes against ISIL, fuelling Kurdish suspicions that its real agenda is keeping Kurdish political and territorial ambitions in check, something the government denies.

“Turkey carried out a couple of air strikes against the Islamic State just for show, without causing serious damage to it, nor is Islamic State feeling serious pressure from Turkey,” Demirtaş said.

“Turkey’s operations do not aim at taking measures against Islamic State. The main objective is to prevent the formation of a Kurdish entity in northern Syria,” he said.

Air strikes

Ankara is uncomfortable with the steady advance of Syrian Kurdish PYD forces, helped by U.S. air strikes, against ISIL. Around half of Syria’s 900 km (560 mile) border with Turkey is now controlled by Kurds.

Erdoğan and the AKP worry that those advances will embolden Turkey’s own 14 million Kurdish minority and rekindle a three-decade insurgency by the PKK, deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and Europe.

After Ankara agreed to open its air bases to the U.S.-led coalition last week following years of reluctance, Turkey and Washington are working on plans to provide air cover for Syrian rebels and sweep ISIL fighters from a strip of northern Syria along the Turkish border.

But the move will also ensure that territory remains out of the hands of the PYD, preventing Syria’s Kurds from joining up areas under their control into what could otherwise become a strip of Kurdish land running from the Iraqi border almost to the Mediterranean.

“Erdoğan stressed in the past that they would never allow the unification of Kurdish cantons in northern Syria. Jarablus is the only obstacle for this unity,” Demirtaş said, referring to a Syrian town on the edge of the proposed “safe zone”.

Turkish officials have said the aim in Syria is to push ISIL away from the border and their operations will not target Syrian Kurdish groups.

They say the strikes against PKK camps in northern Iraq, meanwhile, are a response to increased militant violence in recent weeks, including a series of targeted killings of police officers and soldiers blamed on the Kurdish militant group.

At least nine members of the security forces have been killed over the past week by suspected Kurdish militants.

The PKK has said the air strikes are an attempt to “crush” the Kurdish political movement and create an “authoritarian, hegemonic system” in Turkey.

July/30/2015

Selahattin Demirtaş HDP defies Erdoğan, commits to request their own immunity be removed

July 28, 2015 By administrator

HDP to submit request to have their immunity removed in defiant stance against the interim government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who have accused party of maintaining ties with the armed and outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urging the parliament to strip politicians with links to “terrorist groups” of their immunity from prosecution, implying the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), HDP Co-Chair Demirtaş took to the cameras on Tuesday, vowing to take up Erdoğan on his word.

“If you are talking about immunity, we, together with our 80 parliamentarians, will submit a request to the parliament to have our immunity lifted. If you are not afraid let’s all together lift our immunities? Are you up for it?” stated the HDP co-chair directly addressing Erdoğan.

Erdoğan’s comments regarding the HDP had come days after the Turkish air force bombed camps in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey has so far detained over 1,000 suspects in counter-terror raids, the PKK, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the leftist the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C), but has received criticism from the Kurdish politicians for not being sincere in its efforts against ISIL.

Demirtaş accuses Erdoğan of trying to wreak havoc to stir the country into an early election to have the interim Justice and Development Party (AK Party) win majority once again by eliminating the HDP.

“No matter what happens we will not cease our language of peace. They will attack us but we shall not fall into the trap. The path to their single party rule passes through the elimination of the HDP.”

Report July 28, 2015 | BGNNews.com | Istanbul

Claims of complicity irk Turkey after ISIL’s attack on Kobani

June 25, 2015 By administrator

The unexpected and deadly attack of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants on Syria‘s Kobani early on Thursday unleashed a torrent of debate over how the fighters penetrated the town and whether they entered from Turkish territory, prompting Turkish officials to strongly deny such claims. Report ZAMAN

Explosions are captured, by a camera on the Turkish side of the border moments after car bombs detonate in the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria. (Photo: DHA)

Although Ankara rebuffed claims of allegations that ISIL fighters came from Turkish territory in the strongest possible terms, prominent Kurdish politicians appeared to be doubtful with the official explanation and questioned the alleged role of the Turkish government in the latest attack on Kobani.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç called such allegations lies, denying reports of fighters crossing the Turkish border. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş expressed dismay over the accusations, calling them a smear campaign against Turkey.

“Turkey has been on full alert from the first moment of the attack for wounded from Kobani and asylum seekers in need of humanitarian aid,” he tweeted.

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party described the ISIL attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani as a massacre and blamed it on Turkish state support for the militants, comments that will fuel tension in Ankara amid attempts to form a government.

“The whole world knows the Turkish government has supported ISIL for years. Today’s massacre is a part of this support,” said Figen Yüksekdağ, co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). “The remarks of Turkish politicians are null and void for us. It is up to the Turkish government to prove it does not support ISIL,” she told reporters at a press conference in Ankara on Thursday.

“If this massacre took place without your support, then explain it, prove it. Otherwise our claims are valid,” she added.

Challenging the Şanlıurfa governor’s official statement, Yüksekdağ said it is implausible that ISIL militants came from Jarablus, to the west of Kobani, while Mürşitpınar is very close to Kobani.

The office of Şanlıurfa governor earlier in the day said in a statement that evidence showed the militants had entered Kobani from the Syrian town of Jarablus.

“Why have ISIL militants, on many occasions, easily slipped through the Turkish border, but not on this one when they attacked Kobani? It is unfathomable. We consider the possibility that they crossed the border [on this occasion],” Yüksekdağ said.

While Turkey is part of the US-led global anti-ISIL coalition, its Western allies voice resentment over what they say is Ankara’s reluctance to take a more active part in the campaign against the militant group. Turkey’s Western partners repeatedly call on Ankara to do more to curb Syria-bound fighters crossing its border to join ISIL.

Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader Salih Muslim also said all signs and findings reveal that ISIL fighters entered Kobani from Turkey. In the latest effort to seek to calm Turkey’s jittery nerves over the creation of a separate Kurdish zone in northern Syria after Kurds’ capture of Tel Abyad from ISIL, Muslim said again on Thursday that the PYD has no separatist agenda.

He said claims of ethnic cleansing by Kurds in Syria’s north is an affront to them as Syrian Kurds are the ones who suffered most from such policies in the past.

The pro-Kurdish HDP entered Parliament for the first time after clearing a 10 percent threshold in the June 7 election.

Its success helped to deprive the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) founded by President Tayyip Erdoğan of a majority needed to form a single-party government for the first time in over a decade. The AK Party needs to find a coalition partner to form the government. The HDP success at election also sank Erdoğan’s long-sought bid for an executive presidency as the AK Party was stripped of its majority in Parliament.

ISIL attacks Syrian government and Kurds in twin assault

ISIL fighters launched simultaneous attacks against the Syrian government and Kurdish militia overnight on Wednesday, moving back onto the offensive after losing ground in recent days to Kurdish-led forces near the capital of their “caliphate.”

After recent losses to the Kurds backed by US-led air strikes, ISIL sought to retake the initiative with incursions into the Kurdish-held town of Kobani at the Turkish/Syria border and government-held areas of Hasaka city in the northeast.

In a separate offensive in the multi-sided Syrian civil war on Thursday, an alliance of rebels in the south of the country also launched an attack with the aim of driving government forces from the city of Deraa.

The attacks by ISIL follow a rapid advance by Kurdish-led forces deep into the hard-line group’s territory, to within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of its de facto capital Raqqa, hailed as a success by Washington.

The United States and European and Arab allies have been bombing ISIL since last year to try to defeat ISIL, which a year ago proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory in Syria and Iraq.

ISIL advanced rapidly last month, seizing cities in both Syria and Iraq. The latest Kurdish advance in Syria has shifted momentum back against the jihadists, but ISIL fighters have adopted a tactic of advancing elsewhere when they lose ground.

The group said it had seized the al-Nashwa district and neighboring areas in the southwest of Hasaka, a city divided into zones of government and Kurdish control. Government forces had withdrawn towards the city center, it said in a statement.

Syrian state TV said ISIL fighters were expelling residents from their homes in al-Nashwa, executing people and detaining them. Many ISIL fighters had been killed, it said, including one identified as a Tunisian leader.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, said ISIL had seized two districts from government control.

Thursday’s separate ISIL attack on Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, began with at least one car bomb in an area near the border crossing with Turkey, according to Kurdish officials and the Observatory. ISIL fighters were battling Kurdish forces in the town itself.

Kobani was the site of one of the biggest battles against ISIL last year. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) , backed by US air strikes, expelled the fighters in January after four months of fighting.

YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said Thursday’s attackers had entered the town from the west in five cars, deceptively flying the flag of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army movement, which has fought alongside the YPG against ISIL.

“They opened fire randomly on everyone they found,” he told Reuters.

A doctor in Kobani, Welat Omer, said 15 people had been killed and 70 wounded, many of them seriously. Some had lost limbs. Some of the wounded had been taken to Turkey.

Around 50 people fled to Kobani’s Murşitpınar border gate with Turkey after the attack, seeking to cross the border, local witnesses said. Syrian state TV said the attackers had entered Kobani from Turkey — a claim denied by the Turkish government.

ISIL militants also killed at least 20 Kurdish civilians in an attack on a village south of Kobani, the Observatory reported.

A Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said ISIL appeared to be trying to divert the focus of forces fighting it because of the pressure it was now under near Raqqa: “I believe this is why they moved to Hasaka — because they felt great danger from the situation in Raqqa.”

The Kurdish militia say they currently have no plan to march on Raqqa city.

ISIL storms Hasaka

ISIL militants in Syria stormed government-held neighborhoods in the predominantly Kurdish northeastern city of Hasaka on Thursday morning, capturing several areas of the city, officials and state media said.

The attack came after the ISIL group suffered several setbacks in northern Syria against Kurdish forces over the past weeks. The city of Hasaka is divided between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Kurdish fighters.

Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the YPG, said ISIL militants attacked government-held neighborhoods on the southern edge of Hasaka, and captured some areas.

Syrian state TV reported intense clashes inside Hasaka’s southern neighborhood of Nashawi. According to the report, ISIL fighters killed several people they captured in the city, including the head of a military housing institution. It said the militants sustained many casualties, including the commander of the group who is a foreign fighter.

ISIL tried to storm the city earlier this month and reached its southern outskirts before facing strong resistance from Syrian government troops who pushed them away.

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