Left Party co-chair Janine Wissler met with representatives of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Free Women's Movement (TJA) in Amed (tr. Diyarbakır) to hold talks and get an impression of the political and human rights situation. Wissler was accompanied by Hakan Taş, a member of the Left Party in Berlin.

Wissler and Taş paid their first visit to the DBP information office, where they were received by the DBP co-chair and deputy Saliha Aydeniz. An exchange of views and ideas took place, in which HDP MP Feleknas Uca also participated. Wissler said that for her, it was important to send a visible sign of solidarity, especially before the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 14 May.

Numerous topics were discussed during the meeting, such as the Turkish state's war policy and the related refusal to solve the Kurdish question, as well as the repression against the democratic opposition. The continued isolation of Abdullah Öcalan on the prison island of Imrali was also a topic of discussion. Aydeniz described the "isolation policy" as the biggest obstacle to democratisation in Turkey.

The subsequent visit to the TJA took place under the exclusion of the press. Further talks with human rights organisations, political initiatives and parties are planned until tomorrow. On Tuesday, Wissler and Taş will travel to Ankara to observe the sentencing in the "Kobanê trial". 108 defendants, who are mainly leading politicians of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), face life imprisonment on the basis of trumped-up charges in connection with the Kobanê protests in autumn 2014.

The Kobanê trial is also the actual reason for Wissler's trip to Turkey. The politician accepted the HDP's invitation to observe the 21st hearing of the Kobanî case to be held on 7-9 February 2023 in Ankara. This is because the trial is closely connected to the ongoing case to ban the HDP, which is to be concluded before the elections, and is characterised by unlawful decisions.

The Kobani Case was filed in 2020 against 108 people, including the HDP’s former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, current co-chair Pervin Buldan, several current and former HDP deputies and mayors, and all the members of the HDP’s Central Executive Board of 2014. The case was launched as a counter move by the Turkish government just two weeks after the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights made its final judgment demanding the immediate release of Selahattin Demirtaş. The indictment in the Kobani Case is based on a Twitter message posted by the HDP on 6 October 2014. The message called for democratic protests in solidarity with the people of Kobanî, a Kurdish town in Northern Syria that was fighting against the attacks of ISIS, and also against Turkey’s embargo on the town. The prosecutor is calling for all the defendants to be given aggravated life sentences (without parole) 38 times for the crimes of “destroying the unity of the state and the integrity of the country” and “premeditated murder.” Seventeen politicians are currently being held in pre-trial detention for this case.