HDP Group Deputy Chair Ahmet Yıldırım stated that 9000 HDP members have been detained in the past one and a half years, and that attacks on the party have intensified during the referendum process on the basis of the AKP/MHP alliance.

Yıldırım pointed out that with the referendum now on the national agenda, attacks against the HDP by the AKP-MHP alliance have intensified and added: “We are not just a political party, we are a popular movement. We are a tree that takes its strength from its roots. The more you prune us, the stronger we get.”

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Group Deputy Chair and Muş MP Ahmet Yıldırım spoke to ANF on the referendum process and the attacks against his party and said that the AKP increased intensity of attacks on the opposition with coup profiteering.

“As a result of the wave of violence and the culture of conflict created by the government in the last one and a half years, some 9 thousand of our members have been detained and 2500 of them have been arrested. If that happened to any other party, that party would fail to even open keep their offices open today. The AKP government is displaying a spectacular coup profiteering in the aftermath of the coup attempt, aiming to remove all opposition dynamics. When a regime change, namely the presidential system, was added to this mix in the last 4-5 months, they chose to annihilate all entities they see as obstacles on this path. In this framework, our co-chairs, MPs, co- mayors, and many many friends who worked in the provincial and district branches have been imprisoned.”

“THERE IS A JUDICIAL PROCESS TIED TO THE REFERENDUM CALENDAR”

Yıldırım continued: “Approximately 2 weeks ago, the indictment for our Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş was submitted to the court. Normally, the first hearing would take place within one month the latest. But the date was given as April 28, 3 months from now. Even this is proof that we are facing a judicial process tied to the referendum calendar. The court our Co-chair is on trial at, the Diyarbakır 8th High Criminal Court, was founded just 1 month before, just to put members of parliament on trial. It is the least busy court, but the hearing date is postponed.”

"WE ARE NOT JUST A POLITICAL PARTY BUT A POPULAR MOVEMENT"

HDP Group Deputy Chair recalled that 12 deputies of the HDP had been arrested during the first wave of attacks on their party aimed to interrupt the works of the HDP Headquarters and Parliamentary Group. He remarked that: “After the attacks, we redoubled our efforts to be worthy of our friends, our people and our struggle. Our goal was for nobody to feel their absence. The AKP government noticed this and turned towards our friends who continued the struggle on the outside. Their goal is to annihilate us as a party, but here is where they are wrong: We are not just a political party, we are a popular movement. We are an institution that never takes a step without the people. We are a tree that takes its strength from its roots, the more you prune us the stronger we get.”

Yıldırım stressed that they will under no condition leave the legal and democratic politics front and added: “They can take us in as well. They may carry out the 3rd, 4th or even the 5th wave of arrests on our party. But even if we all are imprisoned, others will be there to pick up where we left of, in one way or the other.”