OPPOSITION MP Leyla Guven has promised that the struggle against Turkey’s government will continue, despite repeated attacks and provocations targeting her Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) .

The Democratic Society Congress chair was speaking at a Democracy Watch protest outside the municipal offices in the city of Diyarbakir in Turkey’s largely Kurdish south-east.

Diyarbakir has been the focal point for protests after the state moved against the HDP, removing its elected mayors in Mardin and Van and replacing them with government-appointed trustees.

Ms Guven said: “The struggle against the coup of trustees continues despite all the obstacles. Those who persecute the Kurdish people have lost… A few municipalities is not our problem, our main issue is the collapse of AKP-MHP [Turkey’s coalition government].”

In what is seen as an attempt to provoke the HDP and turn the population against the party, state forces have orchestrated a counter-demonstration in Diyarbakir. 

Police cars have ferried protesters to join a sit-in outside the HDP offices in the city, with mothers that claiming that their sons have been “kidnapped” by the party and sent to the Qandil mountains in Iraq to join the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.

But support for the sit-in seems to be ebbing, as two of the mothers left the protest yesterday and apologised.

Sources told the Star of fears that the HDP may be shut down by the state, with the party’s executive possibly being detained in coming days.

Ms Guven asked why there was no support when the Peace Mothers protested during hunger strikes by thousands of political prisoners in Turkish jails earlier this year.

“Where were those mothers doing a sit-in in front of HDP provincial building in those days? Those who insist on peace must join us in our struggle for peace. 

“Our people should know that we are winning,” Ms Guven declared, adding that the ousted mayors would “return to duty.”