HDP Chairwoman Pervin Buldan visited Bingöl province on Friday together with DBP co-chair Keskin Bayindir and HDP deputies Hişyar Özsoy, Erdal Aydemir and Alican Önlü. Hundreds of people gathered with HDP flags in front of the local party headquarters, chanting "The HDP is the people and the people are here."

Keskin Bayındir addressed the gathering and said that the HDP and DBP are traveling everywhere in Turkey and Kurdistan to meet with the people. "The Kurdish people are everywhere," the DBP co-chair said, pointing to the difficult time when everything is marked by the aggressive policies of the AKP and MHP. He remarked that the Kurdish people give a strong response to every attack. "We go from street to street, from neighborhood to neighborhood. Our people are waging a great struggle of historical importance. The government is disregarding the will of our people with the arrests and detentions. But our people continue to stand up for their own will in Kurdistan and the Middle East. Because of this resistance, we say that this century will be the century of the Kurdish people. No one will be able to stop this will."

"The Kurdish people will not go down on their knees"

Bayindir recalled the hunger strike being waged in prisons against the isolation of Abdullah Ocalan: "Thousands of prisoners are fighting against isolation with a hunger strike. We are in an important time. For this reason, all our people must fight for freedom in all places and squares. No matter how many attacks and arrests are carried out, the Kurdish people will not fall to their knees. They will extend their struggle even more and break the isolation by fighting. The Kurdish people want a solution. For this, the isolation must be broken. Abdullah Öcalan has shown between 2013 and 2015 what the solution is. Therefore, the policy of isolation and denial must be abandoned. Our people want a solution."

"The negotiating table was overturned"

In her speech, Pervin Buldan also referred to the negotiations on a solution to the Kurdish issue in 2013-2015 and recalled that the Turkish state unilaterally broke off the talks. "This period of peace and negotiations was one of the best periods of this country. For months and years, we all fought together with all our strength to bring justice to this country and solve the Kurdish issue. However, the value of this period has not been recognized, the negotiating table has been overturned." This has once again ushered in a time of conflict, the HDP co-chair said, "It was the AKP government that overturned the table. Everyone must be aware of that."

After the meeting in front of the HDP headquarters, Buldan and Bayindir visited the family of Idris Baluken. The doctor and politician served two terms as a deputy of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey's parliament. During the negotiations for a solution to the Kurdish question, he was a member of the Imrali delegation, along with Sirri Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, which held talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the leadership of the Kurdish liberation movement in the mountains and the Turkish state.

Baluken was arrested along with the then HDP co-chairs and numerous other deputies on Nov. 4, 2016, and released at the start of the trial in January 2017. He was arrested again just two days later and sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison a year later in Amed as an alleged member of a terrorist organization.