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Free the HDP: Break the Silence on Kurds

Berxwedan Jiyane — Resistance is Life in Kurmanci — has long been the slogan of the Kurdish movement and was heard most powerfully last week by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Leyla Guven as she was carted off to prison by Turkish state goons.

Like so many of her comrades, Guven was stripped of her parliamentary status along with Diyarbakir MP Musa Farisogullari and the pair were detained just hours later, with the HDP warning that the latest move by the Turkish state amounted to a political coup.

She has since been released, but Musa remains behind bars. And it is easy to see why the HDP makes such claims amid speculation the party may be shut down by the state.

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