In a written statement, HDP co-chair for Press and Propaganda, Tayip Temel said: “6 April has been promulgated Day of the Murdered Journalists to mark the anniversary of the murder of journalist Hasan Fehmi in 1909. In this last year nothing has changed in Turkey for journalists who still face death for writing the truth.”

Temel added: “The job of the journalist is to expose those privileges that empower some politicians, some bureaucrats, gangs, mafias, misogynists, racists, and thus protect the public interest.

That is why stakeholders inside and outside the government do not like journalists, because they break their order. They are so passionate about defending their unjust power that they do not refrain from killing journalists. Just as it happens in Turkey.

The power in Turkey, does not want free journalists. Because they have too much evil to hide. The government targets journalists so that these evils are not exposed. It wants journalists to protect the interests of the government, not the interests of the people.”

Temel added: “Despite all the pressure and the risk of being killed, arrested and abducted, journalists continue to write the facts. Journalists continue to write about torture, corruption, deep and dirty relationships, interference with the judiciary, blows to the democratic will."

Temel ended his statement by saying: "We stand by journalists who defend the interests of the people, not the government. From Hasan Fehmi to Metin Göktepe, from Gurbetelli Ersöz to Hrant Dink, from Musa Anter to Abdi Ipekçi, we bow respectfully before the memories of all the murdered journalists."