Growing solidarity with the HDP which is facing yet another wave of arrests conducted as part of the Turkish regime's political genocide against the Kurdish people and their elected representatives.
Italian coalition of left-wing political parties and groups, Potere al Popolo [Power to the People] released a statement expressing solidarity with the HDP [Peoples’ Democratic Party] which is facing a new wave of crackdown as the third largest party in Turkey.
The statement includes the following;
"We are shocked and saddened to learn of the latest development in Turkey’s campaign of repression against the Peoples’ Democratic Party, the HDP. Turkey has finally decided to drop all pretences and is seeking to ban outright the country’s third largest political party. This turn of events represents a truly dark moment in Turkey’s history and for democracy globally.
On the same day that one of the HDP’s MPs, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, was stripped of his seat in parliament in an unprecedent and seemingly illegal move, the Turkish public prosecutor brought legal proceedings seeking to ban the HDP outright. The Turkish parliament now looks to be in a very precarious position – Turkish democracy has effectively been shut down.
For years Turkey’s NATO allies turned a blind eye to Turkey’s authoritarian drift, just as they turned a blind eye to its occupation and ethnic cleansing of Afrin. Now, while the major NATO powers, including the US and the EU, express their alarm at the ending of formal democracy, such appeals ring hollow to those who for many years have fought courageously against Erdogan’s repression.
We are gravely concerned for what this move will mean for women, minority communities and dissidents in Turkey. We call on internationalists to amplify the plight of the HDP and Turkish minorities and to stand with them in this hour of need. The cause of the HDP is the cause of progressive politics everywhere, it is the cause of peace in the face of aggression."
