Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, spokeswoman of the HDP Women’s Assembly and Member of Parliament for Ağrı, issued a statement on the latest political operations against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

"There has been a systematic attack on democratic politics, its constituents, and our women's institutions since June 7, 2015. - said Taşdemir - The aim of this concept is to eliminate democracy and institutionalize fascism".

Taşdemir added: "The detainees in this operation are Democratic Society Congress (DTK) members, HDP provincial and district administrators, TJA and HDP Women’s Assembly members and Democratic Islam Congress members. We are faced with an especially intensive detention of women. 67 TJA (Women’s Freedom Movement) activists are currently in police custody. This is a continuation and poor imitation of previous operations. About 300 of our comrades have been arrested within the last 6 days. On the night of October 9 alone, we had 158 comrades including journalists, academicians and politicians detained".

Pointing out that this was not a regular detention operation, Taşdemir said: "People with explicitly known addresses had the doors of their homes and the institutions they work in smashed and their homes plundered. The home of our Hakkari MP Leyla Güven who has been in prison since February 2018 was raided, its door smashed. The house was raided even though she was in jail and thus clearly not at home and it was literally plundered". 

The HDP deputy then listed some examples of this peculiar operation: "They are not content with holding Leyla Guven as hostage; they plundered her home as part of their policy of intimidation to instill fear in people. This is the way that they who keep talking about people’s will deal with the Kurdish people and women’s will. Smashing the door is tantamount to smashing the will".

And furthermore, Taşdemir said: "They raided the home of Güler Özsavcı, the Co-Mayor of Hazro Municipality, they crushed her neck under their combat boots and used violence against her. Güler Özsavcı was elected through the will of the people. They put a gun to the head of the 8-year-old nephew of our Treasurer in Diyarbakır Provincial Office".

AKP is trying to cover up its failure

There is a reason for these operations, which are being advertised in the headlines as a big success. "The AKP, - said Taşdemir - which has driven the country into an ungovernable position and created a crisis, is trying to manipulate its failure by attacking our people and women. They are trying to take the revenge of June 24 elections through these operations and giving the start signal for the local elections". 

The operation is the result of misogynistic policies

The other pillar of these operations is, of course, the AKP's misogynistic policies.

"More than half of the detainees are women. - said Taşdemir - Most of our detained friends are TJA activists and they have been waging the struggle of a women emancipationist line for years. We must underline that they have made great contributions to our struggle for the Co-chair system and that it is thanks to their labor and struggle that we are here today. There is a massive attack on the women emancipationist line of struggle".

Women who have exposed AKP policies are in police custody

In line with this policy, HDP women who have exposed the AKP's policies on women are in custody, said Taşdemir, adding: "Thousands of our comrades were arrested and most of them are women. Our women mayors are still held hostage in prisons. You cannot build a patriarchal monistic fascism anywhere there exists a vibrant struggle for women’s freedom.  That's why they are attacking wherever the struggle for women’s freedom is underway".

Taşdemir ended her remarks by saying: "The patriarchal AKP mentality is doomed to defeat in the face of this justified and legitimate struggle. We condemn these attacks against TJA and all our other comrades. We demand the immediate release of our friends".