The 4th Ordinary Congress of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will take place in Turkey on February 23. In the run-up to the congress, the AKP regime has tightened the repression and had at least 99 members of the HDP arrested in the past two days. The number of unreported cases is likely to be higher.

On the basis of obviously fabricated terrorist accusations, the police took action against activists, members of the executive board, administrators and ordinary members of the HDP as well as journalists and university students in Diyarbakir, Dersim, Mardin, Van, Muş, Ağrı, Ankara, Istanbul, Mersin, Kocaeli and Istanbul, among others.

HDP Law and Human Rights Commission spokesperson and deputy Ayşe Acar Başaran stated that; “The government is furiously attacking the HDP supposing that these mass arrests operations will succeed in pushing the party and its supporters out of democratic politics. Before the 4th Ordinary Congress of the HDP, efforts to criminalize our party through various excuses and to intimidate our citizens through political genocide operations, are ongoing.”

Başaran continued; “We remind the government of the fact that arrest operations will never intimidate us and we call on the public opinion of Turkey to support democratic politics and to stand against the fascist AKP-MHP bloc that pursues a policy of revenge.”

Başaran called for the immediate release of all those unlawfully arrested in the political genocide operations.