After spending many years in prison, Gültan Kışanak, Sebahat Tuncel, Ayla Akat Ata, Meryem Adıbelli and Ayşe Yağcı are free again. The Kurdish politicians were sentenced to various prison sentences on Thursday in the show trial known as the Kobanê trial against the former HDP executive and other opposition members, but were released, taking into account their long pre-trial detention. Kışanak, who was mayor of Amed until her arrest in October 2016, was able to leave the high-security prison in Kocaeli in the evening. So were her four party members were received in front of the Sincan women's prison.

Tuncel: Solidarity with Kobanê was punished

"We are angry," Tuncel said in a speech after the applause she received from the crowd gathered in front of the prison. "Because it was not us who were condemned, but solidarity. The solidarity with Kobanê and the Kurdish people was punished. The message behind it is clear: there is still no prospect of a solution to the Kurdish question, but rather there is insistence on war and conflict."

Between 2013 and 2015 there were talks between the PKK and the Turkish state with the aim of finding a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. The HDP was a mediator in this process. On 24 July 2015, the phase of dialogue between Ankara and the Kurdish liberation movement was officially declared over with the bombing of the Kandil Mountains in South Kurdistan by the Turkish Air Force. With the unilateral termination of the dialogue process, the total war of annihilation against the Kurdish people began.

Coup mechanism instead of judiciary in force

Tuncel said: "Since then, the separation of powers in Turkey has practically been abolished and the judiciary is subordinate to the executive. I say justice, but what I mean is a kind of coup mechanism that is in place of the judiciary." The politician warned that this structure would put not only Kurds, but the entire Turkish society, in a permanent grip from which it would be difficult to escape.

Tuncel added: "It's just empty words when the government talks about 'normalization' while punishing Kurds and socialists who are against war. For this reason, we will continue to strengthen our fight for freedom, peace and democracy. We will channel our anger into resistance and advance our organizational work so we can succeed. The primary goal should be to break the isolation in the prisons, especially in Imrali. Because the key to the solution to peace and, with it, the hope of millions of people for freedom is held there."