Today it is six years since the political crackdown of 4 November 2016, which was directed against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Since then, Erdogan’s regime has been systematically and arbitrarily fighting the HDP with all state resources.

HDP co-chairs Figen Yüksekdag and Selahattin Demertas, MPs, co-mayors and more than 12 thousand HDP members have been imprisoned through arbitrary and systematic attacks by Erdogan regime with politically motivated trials and justice system. Currently, more than 4000 HDP members are in prisons.

14 February 2019, the HDP’s spokesperson, Ebru Günay, surrounded by Turkish police 

Since 17 March 2021, a political indictment formed by Erdogan’s regime and handed over to the court has been before the Constitutional Court to have the HDP banned.

Since 26 April 2021, 108 defendants, including former co-chairs Figen Yüksekdag, Selahattin Demirtas and numerous HDP officials, have been on “Kobani Trial”.  The “Kobani trial” is a political show trial arranged by the Erdogan regime, aims to criminalise the HDP and their solidarity shown against ISIS.

Since 2016, almost all city councils won by the HDP in the 2014 and 2019 local elections have been robbed by Erdogan-appointed trustees.

Numerous HDP city and district associations have been attacked, HDP member Deniz Poyraz was assassinated in Izmir in 2021 in the HDP building. Moreover, HDP’s protests and demonstrations are constantly criminalized and prevented by the regime’s police.

HDP MPs face police blockade (11 February 2019)

Also; 

According to the findings of the Human Rights Association (IHD), there are 1,517 sick people in Turkey’s prisons, 651 of whom are seriously ill. Because the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) certifies that many sick prisoners are fit for detention, deaths continue to occur frequently. According to the IHD, at least 69 prisoners have lost their lives in 2022 alone as of 20 October.

The Erdogan regime has withdrawn from the international Istanbul Convention to combat gender-based violence against women. This has resulted in many domestic violence attackers going free and unpunished in most cases. According to women’s organisations, gender-based violence against women is constantly on the rise.

More than 95% of the media is under the control of Erdogan’s regime. Countless opposition journalists have been arrested and subjected to pressure/censorship and harassment by the regime. Currently, according to the Dicle-Firat Journalists’ Association (DFG), 87 media workers (mostly Kurdish) are in prison.

“These brief facts alone show the conditions under which the HDP is the third largest party in the Turkish parliament. Despite this systematic, arbitrary and violent pressure of the Erdogan regime in the country against the HDP and its anti-Kurdish, war-oriented policies in northern Syria and northern Iraq, the HDP defends its key role for a democratic, pluralist and freedom-oriented role in Turkey’s politics. It continues to oppose Erdogan’s anti-Kurdish, war-oriented policies and advocates a democratic and peaceful politics that includes all people for a dignified, free future,” says the HDP.