The Central Committee of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) in Cyprus released a statement expressing solidarity with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey against the total crackdown imposed on the party by the ruling AKP-MHP regime.

The party pointed out that the recent European Court of Human Rights judgement on the case of the forty HDP MPs is yet another condemnation of the unlawful and political discrimination against HDP elected representatives. Turkey, as a state-member of the Council of Europe, has the obligation to implement this judgement, it noted.

“The fact that over the last decade HDP has grown and become established as a political front that could embrace not only the Kurdish movement but also a broad spectrum of progressive forces in Turkey, was perceived as a threat by those who strive to marginalize forces with a different approach. The rise of authoritarianism in Turkey, especially after the coup d’etat in 2016, gave the pretexts to the Turkish government to silence and suspend an important force of the opposition,” the statement said.

AKEL pointed out that the physical and political attacks against numerous HDP cadres and members at all levels amount to an all-out aggressive policy, an attempt to block its political activity. “We denounce again the mass lifting of the political immunities of your MPs in 2016 and the arrest of your former Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. AKEL joins its voice to all those forces demanding the immediate release of Demirtas, Yuksekdag and all other political prisoners. Turkey is legally obliged to comply with the ECHR rulings,” it said.

AKEL expressed its solidarity with the HDP’s struggle to achieve the release of its leaders and activists, and to pursue its political activity freely.