While in Turkey the state of emergency in force after the foiled coup attempt on July 15, 2016 has long been lifted, it has been in force in several Kurdish provinces for five years without interruption. Every 15 days, the ban on assembly is extended by the Turkish governor in the affected provinces, as was the case again on Saturday in Van province. As the governor announced, the current ban on assembly is to last until August 1.

Officially, any kind of assembly is prohibited. However, this assembly ban does not apply to the ruling parties and Islamist organizations that regularly hold meetings and events in the HDP stronghold of Van. A similar practice prevails in the Kurdish province of Hakkari, where a ban on assemblies has also been in place for five years.