HDP Deputy Co-Chair in charge of Press and Propaganda, Tayip Temel, released a written statement concerning the AKP-MHP government's crackdown on the Kurdish press.

“During the police raid in Diyarbakır this morning, numerous free press workers including Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) Co-Cahir Serdar Altan, JINNEWS Director Safiye Alagaş, JINNEWS editor Gülşen Koçuk, Mesopotamia News Agency editor Aziz Oruç and journalists Ömer Çelik, Suat Doğuhan, Ramazan Geciken, Berivan Karatorak, Esmer Tunç, Neşe Toprak and Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Mazlum Doğan Güler, Neşe Toprak, Mehmet Şahin, Elif Üngür, İbrahim Koyuncu, Remziye Temel were detained. The AKP-MHP government is desperately attacking our party, Kurdish institutions and dissidents as it loses popular support,” the statement said.

'PART OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN'

The statement continued:

“Free press workers have always been the target of governments, their paramilitary forces and parallel structures. Free press workers were targeted by JİTEM, Hezbollah and illegal armed organizations affiliated with the Çiller government during the notorious 1990s. They were also targeted by the AKP government and its partner Gülen Movement in the political genocide operations in the 2000s. Dozens of Kurdish journalists who reported on behalf of the public under difficult conditions have been murdered or put in prisons and their offices were attacked with bombs. Free press institutions were silenced following the decisions taken by the Çiller government and the National Security Council (MGK).

Kurdish journalists, who were targeted by the AKP and the Gülen Movement through the 'KCK Press Trial' in 2011, are now being attacked by the AKP and its ally MHP with the same methods. The AKP is trying to achieve a different result by pursuing fruitless policies which it has inherited from the notorious '90s and the Gülen Movement, which it now deems as putschist. We know that these attacks against the Kurdish people, the Kurdish institutions, our party, the opposition and journalists are part of the election campaign of the government.

'AKP-MHP GOVERNMENT ATTEMPTS TO OBSCURE ITS CRIMES'

This fascist mentality has always aimed to silence society by targeting Kurdish journalists before the massacres it carried out against the Kurds. One week after the detentions and arrests of Kurdish journalists in 2011, the Roboski Massacre was carried out to keep the massacre in the dark. The most recent detentions have come before the planned attack on North and East Syria. What kind of criminal activity is the AKP planning? What is it that the AKP is trying to obscure?

CALL FOR SOLIDARITY

Attacks against journalists are also a desperate attempt by the government to maintain its power. But these are all futile efforts. The free press workers who took over the struggle for truth from Apê Musa and Gurbeteli Ersöz did not submit to Çiller's criminal groups in the past. Nor will they bow down to the fascist and aggressive policies of the AKP and MHP.

We strongly condemn the attacks against free press workers and express that we stand by the journalists who are fighting for the truth. We call on public opinion not to remain silent towards these attacks and urge professional journalists' organizations to show solidarity with their colleagues.”