Two years after the 4 November political coup against the deputies of the HDP, which led to the arrest of many politicians including Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, press releases were read in front of Edirne F Type Closed Prison and Kandıra F Type Closed Prison on Sunday.

HDP deputies Zülayha Gülüm, Tuma Çelik and Zeynel Özen and TİP General President Erkan Baş wanted to read a press statement in front of the Edirne F-Type Closed Prison, but met with a police blockade at the Saraykapı entrance before reaching the prison.

The deputies were told by police that the press conference was forbidden by the Edirne Governorate and that they would not be allowed in. The deputies said that “this decision has no legal basis. We are the deputies of this people and we have the right to make statement wherever we want. You can't prevent us from doing so in this unlawful way”.

Deputies attacked

Police forcibly removed HDP members and press workers who wanted to join the press conference. Deputies Gülüm, Özen and Çelik who remained trapped in the police cordon were actually attacked and insulted.

The statement was finally read by deputy Tuma Çelik under the police blockade. “Attacking us, silencing us, trying to make us step back only achieved the contrary”, said deputy Çelik.

“We promise to our friends in prison and to all our people that this struggle will win. The current political power has taken law and legality in its hands but they will be held to account for it”.

TİP President Erkan Baş said: “The 4 November 2016 was a political coup. On its second anniversary we came to Edirne to show solidarity with our friends but we met with this reality: the coup is ongoing”.

Deputy Zeynel Özen stated that 4 November was a political coup. “Dozens of our deputies have been detained, ​​our mayors have been arrested, and more than 10 thousand party members have been taken hostage. No matter what they do, we will not be suppressed by anti-democratic fascist approaches".

Deputies faced repression in Kandira

HDP group vice president Fatma Kurtulan, deputies Oya Ersoy and Ömer Faruk Gergerlioglu went to Kocaeli Kandira F Type Closed Prison as they wanted to visit the deputies in custody.

The Ministry of Justice had refused the application made by the deputies. Gendarmerie cut the way to deputies in front of the prison.

Deputies wanted to see the prison director but were told by gendarmes that in fact the director did not want to see them. The Ministry of Justice has rejected the deputies’ request for a visit on the grounds of "security".

Message from Yüksekdağ

At the press conference a message from HDP former Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ was read by HDP deputy Asiye Kolçak. “The HDP - wrote the former HDP co-chair - has been a symbol of resistance and a symbol of the future for a society that has experienced almost all attacks, persecution, injustices for two years. We, too, as people's politicians held hostage, have never forgotten where we get this solidity from. We have worked for the freedom of women, the memories and bequests of our immortals, the values ​​of labor, freedom, peace, and for our people and voters.

After that - the former co-chair added - we will continue to be at the heart of our rightful and honorable struggle. Those who think they will imprison us in dungeons, have seen that they are mistaken, and will see it again. But they will never learn because they never know how to learn a lesson. The mission is yours, mine, ours. We are the only option against this power, which has lost its possibility of development and survival and is underminining and taking the country down with it. Turkey's hopes and future are represented by the HDP, a future without attacks, imprisonment. We may be inside or outside, but the main thing that unites us is that we hear and feed this belief and enthusiasm”.

"We won’t step back"

After reading the message by Yüksekdağ, Fatma Kurtulan, HDP group president, stated that the political genocide is an attempt to dismantle the democratic sections of Kurdish politics from the political arena.

“In 1994 - said Kurtulan - we experienced the same repression. Then DEP deputies were detained in Parliament for wanting democracy. And they had to stay in prison for years. Then again in 2009 a political operation was carried out. Thousands of people were arrested, particularly those elected”.

Kurtulan then reminded that “only 2 and a half years ago, Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed deputies’ immunity with the support of three parties in Parliament. And then our friends were taken into custody and arrested. At that time, nearly 12 thousand of our executives and members were detained and arrested. Our co-chairmen and politicians were arrested and imprisoned. Nine of our deputies are still in prison”.

Kurtulan ended her remarks by reaffirming that “the HDP won’t step back”.