Right after the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) announced they were to enter the June 7 2015 elections as a party, the government attempted threats and blackmail to dissuade them, but the party administration had the support of the people behind them and stood strong. HDP took off with the motto “New Life”, and took a clear stance against Tayyip Erdoğan’s dreams of presidency with the motto “We won’t allow you to be president”. This outburst was widely supported by the people and all societal groups worked to the best of their abilities for the party to pass the election threshold on June 7. Up to that day, several party buildings and election offices were bombed, Hamdullah Öğe who drove the election car was murdered inside the vehicle in Karlıova, Bingöl, there was a bomb attack on an election rally in Amed 2 days before the election, 4 people died in that explosion and 400 were wounded.

On the day of the election, HDP made an even bigger leap than expected and destroyed the election threshold by getting 13,12% of the vote. That is 6 million 57 thousand 506 votes, to be exact. HDP won by a landslide in 14 provinces and sent 80 deputies to the parliament. This success in such a critical period allowed for a hope for a democratic, egalitarian and libertarian Turkey to grow, along with the election campaign that people ran with such enthusiasm and excitement.

With HDP passing the threshold and forming a strong group in the parliament, Erdoğan’s dreams for a presidential system had failed, and a forceful authoritarian regime change had been thwarted. AKP’s 13 year rule had ended and the hands were being dealt again. But AKP could not handle defeat, did not reach an agreement with MHP or CHP for a coalition, and opened the way for snap elections on November 1. The government had made their purpose clear with the Suruç massacre, and started to directly attack the HDP with the war launched in July. On the way to November 1, all attempts of the government and all their attacks wasn’t enough to push HDP out of the parliament and the party entered the election with the joint will of the peoples, won 10,76% of the vote and sent 59 deputies to the parliament.

DEPUTIES IN CELLS

Not one year after that election, immunities for HDP MPs were lifted, and then AKP and their partisan media targeted them in every chance they got. The pressure got to the level of death threats, and right after that, in the dead of the night of November 4, by the hand of the judiciary, HDP Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, HDP MPs Nursel Aydoğan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Selma Irmak, Ferhat Encü, Gülser Yıldırım, İdris Baluken, Ziya Pir, Leyla Birlik, Abdullah Zeydan, İmam Taşçıer and Nihat Akdoğan were taken into custody. The MPs were thuggishly detained in house raids, citing the excuse that they didn’t go in voluntarily to give statements on inquiries against them. They were transferred immediately to courts the following day. MPs Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Ziya Pir and İmam Taşçıer were released on parole and the remaining 10 MPs were arrested and transferred to prisons. Previous Constitutional Court verdict on arrested deputies was disregarded and all HDP MPs were placed in solitary confinement cells in Type F prisons in Edirne, Istanbul and Kocaeli.

DEMİRTAŞ IN ISOLATION

HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş was targeted in a veritable lynching campaign, and he has been held under isolation conditions, alone in a cell, for the last 27 days in Edirne Type F Closed Prison. Demirtaş is held in Block C, which is where petty criminals and Al-Qaeda members are kept, and he has been subjected to harassment by slogans by these groups. When protests developed following our reports on the issue, some arrestees and political prisoners in Block C were exiled to Safranbolu Prison. The prison administration chose to evacuate his surroundings, rather than releasing Demirtaş from solitary confinement, and they are not willing to place Demirtaş with the political prisoners.

WOMEN IN TYPE F PRISONS

HDP Co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ was arrested in Amed where she was taken to 27 days ago, on November 5 after she was detained in her home. Yüksekdağ was taken to the Kocaeli Type F Prison and is also held in a solitary confinement cell. Although by procedures, women are not supposed to be placed in Type F prisons, all women arrested together with Yüksekdağ were placed in Type F cells one by one.

AGGRAVATED LIFE FOR BALUKEN

HDP Group Deputy Chairperson and İmralı Committee member İdris Baluken was detained in the same operation and arrested in Bingöl. He is charged with “disrupting the unity and integrity of the state”, “membership to a terrorist organization”, “terrorist propaganda”, “attending illegal demonstrations unarmed and not dispersing on warning” in the dozens of inquiries filed against him. Baluken is held in Kandıra Type F Closed Prison, while indictments were prepared with lightning speed and the courts are getting ready to judge. The Bingöl Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has prepared an indictment and sent it to Amed. The indictment demands an aggravated life sentence and a 15 year sentence.

HE WAS THE VOICE OF ROBOSKÎ

Şırnak MP Ferhat Encü, who had lost many of his relatives in the Roboskî Massacre, has been targeted directly by the police and soldiers for the last year in all demonstrations and activities he attended. Encü has been battered countless times by law enforcement. He has been placed in the Kandıra Type F Closed Prison, and is kept in a solitary confinement cell. Encü has been working to bring the perpetrators of the Roboskî Massacre to light for years in the parliament.

ALL HAKKARİ PARLIAMENTARIANS ARE IN PRISON

Hakkari’s three parliamentarians Selma Irmak, Abdullah Zeydan and Nihat Akdoğan have been arrested during the recent political genocide operations.

Selma Irmak had been elected into the parliament when she was in prison in 2011, but was kept in jail despite her election. Irmak is currently in Silivri No: 9 Prison.

Abdullah Zeydan was sent to Edirne F Type Closed Prison along with Selahattin Demirtaş, and was arrested for the speeches he had made when he was a parliamentarian. Zeydan and Demirtaş are kept in the cell where prisoners with life sentences are kept, and are not allowed to make contact with the outside world.

Nihat Akdoğan had been detained as he was entering Hakkari on November 7, and arrested and sent to Silivri Prison. With the arrests of Irmak, Zeydan and Akdoğan, the votes of 83,71 percent of the voters in Hakkari have been seized.

Mardin Parliamentarian Gülser Yıldırım had been detained on the same date, arrested and sent to Kandıra F Type Closed Prison. Yıldırım was arrested for her speeches and is kept in solitary confinement.

Nursel Aydoğan, who has been a parliamentarian for 3 terms, was accused of “willingly aiding an organization,” arrested, and sent to Silivri No: 9 Prison where she is kept in a cell like other parliamentarians.

Leyla Birlik, who had been arrested and sent to Silivri No: 9 Prison, was one of the 4 HDP parliamentarians from Şırnak where the HDP had won 84.13 percent of the votes on November 1, 2015.