Skip to main content

Leading Kurdish women jailed by Erdogan regime in "political show trial"

TWO leading women from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences on Friday as the Turkish state was accused of “eliminating democratic politics” through political show trials.

Gultan Kisanak, former mayor of the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, received 14 years and three months in prison while former HDP co-chairwoman Sebahat Tuncel was handed a 15-year sentence.

Both women have been held since 2016 after the Turkish state moved against HDP opposition politicians in a series of night-time raids. 

They were charged with “spreading terrorist propaganda” on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – which is banned in Turkey – in speeches and at rallies.

Ms Tuncel – who is one of more than 200 Kurds on hunger strike in protest at the isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan – was not in court to hear her sentence.

Ms Kisanak dismissed the charges saying: “I do what I do because it is true, legal, legitimate, humanitarian. Everything I do is in the frame of democratic politics.”

She was just 19 when she was sent to the notorious Diyarbakir prison following the 1980 military coup, where she was forced to stay in a dog kennel for months after refusing to say she was a Turk, insisting on her Kurdish identity.

HDP officials warned the jailings were “not legal, but political.”

Co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli said in a statement that the sentence “is aimed at those struggling for democracy and shows that we are in the right in our struggle. 

“This biased mentality can punish us, our activities, the struggle for women's freedom and equality, but it can never prevent our struggle in the world.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has moved to crush all forms of opposition; jailing journalists, academics and MPs as he tightens his vice-like grip on power.

Authorities have banned a number of opposition parties including the Labour Party of Turkey from standing in next month’s local elections with Mr Erdogan saying he would refuse to recognise HDP victories.

Former co-chairman and HDP presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Swedish Social Democratic Party MP Thomas Hammarberg on Friday.

He cited his key role in a 12-year struggle to promote peace between Kurds and Turks along with his support for “minority rights, women’s rights, gay rights and democracy.”

Mr Demirtas is currently in jail and faces a sentence of 142 years on trumped-up terrorism charges.
 

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 13,288
We need:£ 4,712
3 Days remaining
Donate today