The Co-chairs and deputies of the HDP who were detained in a large-scale operation last night, made a joint statement at Court.

The statement was translated by ANF English service below:

“My party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), entered the parliament with 80 deputies in the June 7 General Elections by more than 6 million votes and by exceeding the 10% electoral threshold. By the way of democratic politics and the will of the ballot, my party has prevented AKP from coming to power alone and rewriting the constitution on their own. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who wants to build a ‘one-man’ regime in the country with no reservations on committing any and all acts of unlawfulness to this end, did not respect the outcome of the elections and forced early elections by preventing a coalition government from being formed. Erdoğan ended the 3-year long solution process because it didn’t suit his interests or work to increase his votes, and dragged the country into an atmosphere of conflict, throwing the country into the flames.

In the atmosphere of conflict, our fellow citizens had, with good reason, worried for their safety, and in the unequal and unjust elections held in an environment of fear and shock, AKP came back to power alone.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan disregarded the parliament and the government in a great panic and haste after seeing the June 7 election results, took control over a significant portion of the judiciary, taking the media under his control completely and thus implemented a coup. He became so reckless as to openly express that he didn’t recognize the constitution, that he changed the regime in practice, and that he didn’t even recognize the decrees by the Constitutional Court and announce that he has confiscated the state.

There are many allegations against him during his term as Prime Minister, including corruption, thievery, money laundering, illegal activity around gold trade to break the international embargo imposed upon Iran, illegal arming of terrorist groups in Syria. He has managed to cover up these investigations with the pressure and control he has achieved over the judiciary.

He is aware that the only way to permanently be rid of these investigations he covers up for now is to gather all authority in his hand, and it is clear that there is no madness he won’t attempt to this end. He has managed to increase nationalist and chauvinist sensation and racist hate speech with bloodshed and funerals he caused all around the country, gathered masses around him with the lie that ‘the country is facing a threat of fragmentation’ and is using them in his own interests, continuing to march to his goal one step at a time.

The only obstacle in his way to this goal, namely the dictatorship regime under the guise of the presidential system, is the Peoples’ Democratic Party. Our party clearing the 10% threshold and entering the parliament with 59 deputies in the November 1 elections has prevented Erdoğan once again from reaching the majority needed to change the constitution on his own. This is why he is striving for an AKP group that can achieve the 367 majority with deputies loyal to him in possible early elections.

Our party HDP has adopted politics that are suitable for the multicultural, multilingual, multi-faith social structure of Turkey, and includes representatives from all different identities and faiths in the country. We as Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Turkmens, Assyrians, Ezidis, Mihellemis and many more ethnic groups who believe in democracy and coexistence believe that a just and equal life is possible, and that this can only be achieved through a pluralist democracy, strong local democracy and autonomies.

Our party HDP defends women’s struggle for freedom and emancipation. By guaranteeing equal participation of women in politics, our party has achieved the highest female representation in Turkey’s history. Lifting the immunities of female deputies in our party is a threat against women in Turkey, and a blow against the women’s struggle.

We oppose all types of violence completely and believe in the power of dialogue and negotiations for solutions to all problems. With this, the HDP is also a “threat” in the ideological sense to Erdoğan, who is trying to have the one-man, one-language, one-sect fascism rule over the country.

With these excuses, our party HDP has been a target for Erdoğan since the day we set out on our political journey. When he failed to defeat our party in the elections with all possible deceit and injustice, attacks and bombings, he has forced the lifting of our immunities in a manner that is against the Constitution and the Parliament’s Bylaws and he wants to put us through a so-called ‘trial’ as a person whose independence and neutrality is openly disputed.

AKP government that lifted our immunities has swiftly gifted the army with an armor of immunity, seeking to absolve the soldiers from crimes committed in Kurdish cities in the last year in particular. The army received the armor of immunity on July 14, 2016 and attempted a coup on July 15, 2016. The coup plotters went so far as to bomb the Parliament, and the ones giving them power were again the AKP government that imposed politics of conflict and implemented politics of war by pushing the democratic politics away since June 7. When it was possible to achieve a great social peace by a rapprochement in the light of democratic principles following an unsuccessful coup attempt, Erdoğan and the AKP Government decided to go into state of emergency regime instead, and the country has since been ruled by Statutory Decrees issued by the Cabinet. When democracy should have been brought forth in the aftermath of an attempted coup, a new coup process was initiated. The appointment of trustees to municipalities determined by elections and the expulsion of thousands of teachers are the most concrete signs that a coup regime is being built through the Statutory Decrees. Erdoğan and AKP created the opportunity for the coup with their politics of war initiated before the June 7 elections, and have laid the foundation for the process that led to the July 15 coup attempt. Policies implemented post-July 15 and the apparent initiation of an anti-democratic concept continue to strengthen a basis for a civil war. Although the only way out of this chaos is strengthening democratic politics and ending the civilian-military tutelage regimes, we unfortunately see that this path is not preferred today through practices that push the country back decades.

We are the elected representatives of the people. We represent not our selves, but the masses of voters who elected us. Right now, I stand before you as a deputy, a member of the Parliament with immunity. It is not possible for me to allow the identity I represent and the will of my people to be insulted.

I have no reservations on answering to a just and neutral judiciary. I have no acts that I can’t account for. I will never accept to be subject to such a political trial while the respectability of the judiciary in the country is so downtrodden. I have no reservations against your person and no disrespect. But I refuse to be a walk-on extra in the judiciary show launched because Erdoğan with all his dubious political past ordered so. I will not answer any questions you ask, and I have no faith that any act of judgment will be just. Even me being brought here is unlawful. The respondents for politicians in the political realm are other politicians, not members of the judiciary. In this context, you as members of the judiciary who are supposed to be dedicated to the universal and democratic principles of law and the international treaties Turkey has signed as a constitutional decree, should refuse to be part of political games and ruse.

We will continue our political struggle with determination until a pluralist democratic regime is built and peace is achieved. We will continue to defend and protect an equal and common life against social polarization, democratic political struggle against violence, pluralism against monism, democracy against fascism, freedom of faith and conscience against sectarian/racist politics, equality against discrimination and hate speech, and of course all the rights of the Kurdish people that arise from being a people, the equal citizenship demand of the Alevi society, freedom of faith for religious minorities, equal participation of women to social/political/economic life, the conservation of the environment and ecology against capitalist disruption, workers’ rights against the greed for profit of the capital. Whether we are in the parliament or in prison, you won’t be able to stop us from defending our ideology and fighting for these causes.

We have no doubt that we will be rid of this fascist order imposed upon our country and our people under the guise of a “presidential system”. Sooner or later, our struggle for democracy will prevail. This rundown regime embodied by Erdoğan will change.

I have no demands and no expectations from you. Only my people who elected me can judge me for my political activities.”