108 politicians including HDP former co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş and HDP Central Executive Board Members stand trial in the so-called ‘Kobane Case’. The first hearing will begin in Turkish capital Ankara on Monday.

The Basque political organization Askapena released a statement expressing solidarity with the HDP before the start of the ‘Kobane trial’ tomorrow.

Full text of the statement by the Basque organization reads as follows:

“On April 26th, the judicial process of illegalization of the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) will begin in the Constitutional Court of Turkey, Ankara. The aim of this move is to silence the liberation movement of Northern Kurdistan (Bakur) and the institutional expression of the political platform that encompasses the leftist and revolutionary sectors of Turkey.

The procedure was initiated in March by the Turkish Public Prosecutor's Office. Several European media, in addition to denouncing the procedure, pointed out that the State complied with the demands of the extreme right. But the problem goes beyond the fascism of the extreme right, as the Turkish state has been on the track of a brutal repression against the HDP since its creation in 2012, and especially since 2015, when the state suspended peace talks.

That year, the HDP won 13% of the votes in the July general elections, bringing a pro-Kurdish party to the Turkish Congress for the first time. In response to the attitude of the State, more than 100 Kurdish municipalities demanded autonomy and they put the municipal budgets to the benefit of the people, leaving the State in the lurch. Under the auspices of this autonomy, an enormous development of the Democratic Confederalism theorized by the Kurdistan Liberation Movement was put in practice: cooperatives multiplied enormously, important steps were taken in the liberation of women (creation of organizations for the protection of battered women, proliferation of the Jineoloji academies...), the Kurdish language and Kurdish culture were promoted, the spaces for the organization of the youth were expanded... In short, the mechanisms to respond to the needs of the people were made possible.

Faced with this, the response of the Turkish state was terrifying, the Turkish army and police murdered thousands and thousands of citizens; they almost made all the villages disappear, sieges, curfews, raids... There were strong clashes in the streets of the villages of Bakur, the youth organized the popular guerrilla YPS in defense of the so-called autonomy... There were massive protests.

However, in 2016 the state took over the municipalities and directors appointed directly by Ankara were established. By 2018, 26,000 HDP members were imprisoned and persecution against the party and against the Kurdistan Liberation Movement in general increased.

Until now, membership or support for the PKK has been the main argument for the arrest and imprisonment of Kurdish militants, but this time the main argument that the Prosecutor's Office is wielding against the HDP is precisely the fact of questioning Turkish unity and attacking the constitutional order. Another argument it uses is having organized protests when the Islamic State besieged Kobane (Rojava, Western Kurdistan), accusing the Turkish state of doing nothing in the face of that siege and, therefore, being an accomplice of IS.

The Kurdish people and various left-wing factions carried out solidarity demonstrations beyond the borders, which was a huge earthquake to the unity of Turkey. Revolutionary Kurdish people and leftist factions took to the streets in solidarity with their compatriots in response to an attack on neighboring Kurdish brothers.

This latest attempt to outlaw the HDP is precisely one more in the succession of attacks against the Kurdish people; the umpteenth step for the Turkish state to maintain its hegemony. Turkey has a clear intention: to be the guardian of its geographical area. And the imperialist powers know that Turkey's strength is great, that they must largely abide by it. Based on this purpose, in the last years we have seen how it has questioned the alliance in NATO for a possible rapprochement with Russia, and we have seen, moreover, that it has done all this causing a greater cost to its environment (USA, Russia...) than to itself. Capitalism needs Turkey to control its wealth and raw materials, which is clear, and meanwhile the repression of the peoples continues with the help of international silence.

To understand the illegalization of the HDP isolated from the above context and to stick just to this denunciation is to be an accomplice of the oppression of the Kurdish people. Once again the process of liberation of the Kurds has been attacked; in this case, one of the instruments created by them to achieve their freedom. From Askapena we are clear that, as in so many other occasions, the Kurdish people will succeed in creating new instruments and ways to advance in the struggle for freedom. Now, as we denounce the process of illegalization of the HDP, we will accompany them on that road to complete liberation.”

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