HDP’s Women’s Spokeswoman Dilan Dirayet Tasdemir read a press statement along with the Women’s Group in front of the Diyarbakir Prison where HDP MP and DTK Co-chair Leyla Guven has been on a hunger strike since November 7 to protest the isolation.

STATEMENT UNDER SHADOW OF FIGHTER JETS

The police surrounded the MPs and frequently issued threats to end the demonstration. The police also removed participants who weren’t MPs from the area, and when isolated by the police the MPs started livestreams to share the demonstration themselves. Fighter jets were ordered to take off as the MPs read the statement. Tasdemir did read the statement despite all obstacles, and said:

“WE WILL BREAK THIS STANCE OF YOURS THROUGH RESISTANCE”

“First, we condemn your approach against our demonstration here. You are lawlessly intervening with this event. We will break this stance of yours through resistance. As the HDP Female MPs Group, we are here to embrace the action of our Hakkari MP and DTK Co-chair Leyla Guven, held hostage in prison, and to salute her.”

“THE ISOLATION DEEPENS THE WAR”

Tasdemir said: “We salute once more the resistance Leyla launched, and we embrace it.” The statement continued:

“Our MP Leyla has been held hostage in this prison since January 31. On November 7, MP Guven announced a hunger strike during her hearing to protest the isolation imposed upon Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. This action by MP Guven is not personal, she started this struggle to express the peoples’, the women’s demand for peace and democracy. The deepened isolation is a crime against humanity. We are faced with a lawless state. The state has continued this isolation for 3 years, in complete disregard of their own laws. We women know that the isolation is against democracy, against freedoms. We women declare that we stand against this isolation, we don’t accept it. Stand witness that we saw a peace process recently. We know that the peace process developed during the search for a solution was closely related to Mr. Öcalan’s position. The struggle and theses Mr. Öcalan developed at the time developed this struggle. Mr. Öcalan has a very important position for peace. This policy of isolation deepens the policies of war, it demands war.”