Ruken Canbey, who lives in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir), has been taking part in the protest action organised by the AKP in front of the HDP building in the city since 2019. With this state-orchestrated action, relatives of guerrilla fighters demand that the HDP hand over their children or siblings. Numerous affected fighters of the YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) and HPG (People’s Defense Forces) then declared that they had gone to the mountains of their own free will and called on their relatives to refrain from the embarrassing action. From the descriptions of other parents, it also became known that they were put under massive pressure by the Turkish security forces to take part in the absurd protest. The Turkish authorities are using a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, they are threatening them with repression, on the other hand, they are holding out the prospect of financial and personal benefits. This is how Ruken Canbey was rewarded, by being hired by the state-appointed trustee governing the municipality.

Canbey, who participated in the action for about three years while receiving a salary from the municipality, was called a fortnight ago by local AKP leader Mehmet Şerif Aydin: "You have worked enough, now it's other families' turn." Canbey's job was terminated, and other people sitting outside the HDP headquarters were hired instead. Canbey then went to see the trustee to complain to no avail. Since then, Canbey has been driving around the city telling everyone what the AKP leader did to her. Aydin is said to have called Canbey once and warned her, but she continues her actions.

Canbey played a leading role in the protest in front of the HDP headquarters. For example, she claimed that her brother, who was suffering from leukaemia, had been abducted to the mountains. Her reaction to her dismissal from the municipality proves once again that relatives get money or a job for their participation in the action.

The staged protest began in September 2019 with the story of a young man who was reported missing by his family to the police. His mother went from the police to the HDP building, broke the windows and demanded her son back, who was allegedly taken to the guerrillas by party members. A short time later, the victim himself came forward and stated that he had left his parental home to escape a forced marriage to a relative.

Staged protests also take place in front of other HDP headquarters in Turkey, including in Ankara and Izmir. In the course of the agitation against the HDP, Deniz Poyraz, an employee of the HDP association in Izmir, was shot dead by a fascist assassin a year ago.