The international campaign Peace in Kurdistan (PIK) released a statement condemning the mass arrest of over a hundred people in a Diyarbakır-based operation in Turkey.

The PIK statement includes the following:

“There is a certain grim inevitability about the wave of repression carried out in Turkey in the run up to the May elections. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan desperately wants to remain in power and will do almost anything to ensure that he does so. 

In the latest pre-election clampdown on 25 April, Kurdish political officials, journalists, human rights activists and lawyers were rounded up in what were clearly coordinated dawn raids on the homes and offices of 128 individuals in 20 provinces.  In this latest wave of repression, it was also reported that arrest warrants had been issued against a total of 216 people in an anti-terrorism operation. 

This action comes at a time when President Erdogan and his party, the AKP, appear to be increasingly weak with diminishing popular support and signs that Erdogan’s 21-year dominance of Turkish politics is finally coming to an end. Pre-poll commentators suggest that he may lose the election, whose first round is on 14 May.

Erdogan seems weak both politically and physically. The Turkish President suspended his campaigning after taking ill during a televised interview this week with a live broadcast abruptly terminated. Erdogan’s stature is much diminished. In appearance, he appears frail and a sick man. This physical weakness has, however, more than symbolic significance. 

Weakened politically, Erdogan is no longer the unchallenged force that he once was and faces a reducing power base. During his long political career, Erdogan has sought to present himself as Turkey’s strongman, a ruthless political operator who was fully in charge of the state and able to exert a firm grip on the levers of power. He is instinctively autocratic and has sought to accrue many more powers to the Turkish presidency, about which many commentators have warned over the years.   

It is feared that Erdogan will take almost any step to remain in power, which makes him a direct threat to the democratic process in his country. He seems to be prepared to undermine the election if he believes that there is a possibility that he will lose it. 

But there are signs that the Erdogan era really is at last coming to an end. He has cast a dark shadow over Turkish society for far too long. There is hope that his 21 years in power might soon be over.  

Many reports suggest that the mood inside the country is changing fast with voters swinging against Erdogan and there are credible predictions that he can be defeated.

His popularity has been much diminished as a result of a shambolic government response to the devastating February earthquakes which left over 50 thousand people dead and millions displaced.

The repression targeting Kurdish activists and organisations is undeniably designed to stoke up a mood of fear and suspicion, sowing social divisions by setting Turks against Kurds. Erdogan has regularly and ruthlessly manipulated the alleged terrorist threat from the Kurds to rally support and portray himself as saviour of the nation. He is attempting to pull off the same trick once again.  

The current cynical and predictable action bodes ill for the conduct of the election day and raises alarms about whether it can be free and fair. Independent election observers will be needed, if permitted.

The April arrests are nothing less than a blatant attempt to weaken the rising opposition to President Erdogan and a bid to silence the voices of critical independent media that refuse to toe the government line.

All the journalists, party officials and lawyers who have been rounded up and detained must be freed straight away. 

Pressure must be brought on the Turkish authorities to end the clampdown on political activities and independent media during the eve of the election.

Peace in Kurdistan calls on the British Government to make its concerns clearly known about the threat to democracy in Turkey.

The outside world cannot ignore the arrest of individuals in such highly questionable circumstances and when little evidence against them has been presented. The action of the Turkish authorities seems deliberately calculated and timed to manipulate the election and aimed at obstructing opposition campaigning in the crucial pre-election period and thereby seeking to weaken the opposition to President Erdogan and the AKP.

Peace in Kurdistan condemns this crude effort to manipulate public opinion to fix the result in favour of the ruling party and its incumbent president.

Erdogan must not be permitted to steal the election from the Turkish people.”