The trial of leading politicians of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) in Ankara will continue today in Ankara. 108 people, including almost the entire former party executive, are on trial accused of having called for the defense of Kobanê against the Islamic State in 2014.

28 of the accused, including former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, are in prison.

At the second hearing, Figen Yüksekdağ described the trial as “the embodiment of the break-up operation against the HDP”. Demirtaş, who, like Yüksekdağ, took part in the trial via video link from the prison, justified his petition for bias against the judges at the start of the trial and said: “This trial is a political revenge trial against the HDP. One day a Kobanê trial will also open and it will become clear who are really responsible for the massacres that have been committed. But then we will not be sitting on the defendant’s bench."

Demirtaş added that the trial was purely for political purposes and that the indictment had no value. According to Demirtaş, the bias of the court arises from the fact that the 3530-page indictment was allegedly accepted after a three-day examination. “Even if you read for 24 hours without a break, it would take nine days to read all this,” said the Kurdish politician, who is himself a lawyer.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the release of Demirtaş on 22 December 2020 and, among other things, ruled that the statements on Kobanê did not call for violence. For the former HDP co-chair alone, the public prosecutor's office is demanding up to 15,000 years in prison.