The hearing in the show trial known as the “Kobanê trial” against leading politicians of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) will resume in the Sincan prison complex in Ankara on 4 September. In the Kobanê trial, which has been ongoing since April 2021, a total of 108 personalities from politics, civil society and the Kurdish liberation movement have been charged with terror offenses and dozens of murders in connection with the protests during the ISIS attack on Kobanê in October 2014.

193 intellectuals from Turkey released a statement titled “Kobanê trial is unlawful, and we stand against it”.

The statement released on Monday said: “We follow with great concern the Kobanê Trial, in which 108 people stand trial, including 18 in prison, on the grounds of the 6-8 October 2014 protests against the ISIS attack on Kobanê which was condemned by the international community without hesitation. Despite the ECHR Grand Chamber ruling of a violation, the case witnesses a violation of all constitutional rights, mainly the right to fair trial, engagement in political activity and freedom of expression.”

The intellectuals pointed out that: “As persons of arts and ideas, we declare our stand against this open unlawfulness and we call for an immediate abandonment of the attitudes that move our country away from law, peace and democracy.”

Background

The Kobani Case was filed in 2020 against 108 people, including the HDP’s former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, 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, which 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 seeks 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” of the people who lost their lives in the Kobani protests. Seventeen politicians are currently being held in pre-trial detention in the case.

The Kobani case is closely linked with the closure case filed against the HDP, for which it serves as a pretext. In the closure case, the prosecution is mainly based on the alleged role and responsibility of the HDP in the murders that occurred during the protests for Kobanê in 2014. The Grand Chamber of the ECtHR has already examined these allegations in the case of Selahattin Demirtaş and concluded that neither Demirtaş nor the HDP had any responsibility for the murders.