Turkey leads in pending applications at ECHR with 23,400 cases
Turkey had the highest number of pending applications with 23,397 cases out of a total of 68,450 cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) at the end of 2023.
There is an urgent need for condemnation of Turkey, appropriate sanctions and a swift initiative for dialogue with the aim of a political solution to the Kurdish question and lasting peace in the Middle East.
HDP former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s defence speech in the Kobane Case
“Instead of sending Turkish youth to war at -20 degrees Celsius, send a delegation to İmralı. Öcalan is the party to the negotiation. He is the legitimate interlocutor representing the political demands of the Kurds, the most effective actor.”
The EUTCC Conference welcomes the decision of the European Parliament to award the Sakharov Peace Prize to the Kurdish woman Jina Amini as a symbol of the maxim Jin, Jiyan, Azadi post hum and declares its solidarity with the women’s resistance.
Over 1,640 people were put on trial in 233 cases regarding the freedom of expression monitored by Media and Law Studies Association observers in Turkey. In 32 cases, 116 defendants were sentenced to a total of more than 217 years of imprisonment.
DEM Party Legal and Human Rights Commission announced that Turkish authorities detained 2,906 people affiliated with the party, including children and many party executives, and arrested 319 of them in the first 11 months of 2023.
Press Briefing on the situation of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan
The U.K.-based Trade Union Campaign for Abdullah Ocalan was joined by members of the Kurdish community and over 40 trade unions, local governments, NGOs and others for a press conference in front of the European Parliament demanding international action on the case of jailed Kurdish political leader Abdullah Ocalan whom lawyers and family members had not heard from for 28 months
Arrest of journalist Merdan Yanardağ on terror charges
The editor-in-chief of TELE1 TV, Merdan Yanardağ, who was arrested on on charges of “propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “praising criminals” had criticized the government for not allowing the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to meet with his family and lawyers
The Kurdistan Workers Party is often considered a latecomer that miraculously survived the 1980 military coup. Yet the establishment of the party in 1978 was preceded by a long process of group formation that started shortly after the 1971 military coup in Turkey. This article presents a chronology of the PKK during the 1970s.
Statement by HDP Foreign Affairs Spokespersons Feleknas Uca and Hişyar Özsoy: It should be underlined that in incidents of death or injury resulting from actions of the security forces, there are often no investigations launched, or perpetrators may receive “penalties” that seem more like rewards.
Turkey’s targeted assassination of civilians in North and East Syria
Statement by HDP Foreign Affairs Spokespersons Feleknas Uca and Hişyar Özsoy: We call on everyone to make sure that these attacks are not forgotten and allowed to fade, un-noticed, into history, and ask the national leaders and international organisations to ensure that Turkey stops such attacks that violate both the international and humanitarian law.
A clear stance is needed from Europe and its institutions for the opposition, which has fought for change despite the strongest repression. Turkey’s policy under Erdoğan must not remain without consequences. If judgments of the European Court of Human Rights continue to be disregarded, the Council of Europe must take the necessary measures for violation of the convention.
Press conference by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Mithat Sancar and Green Left Party co-spokespersons Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar and İbrahim Akın on the presidential run-off elections
Society and politics are not hopelessly at the mercy of the downward spiral, but have the chance to consciously and actively intervene in the process of change.
