British Labour Party MP Feryal Clark, Britain’s first female Kurdish MP, blasted the “anti-democratic” actions of Turkey saying it was sliding into “complete authoritarianism” with one man - President Erdogan - wielding ultimate power.

She was speaking at a meeting in solidarity with Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) activist Gokhan Gunes, who was freed earlier this week after a sickening five-day ordeal in which he was tortured and threatened with rape.

The Labour parliamentarian said that the arrests and detentions of elected politicians from the HDP should set “alarm bells ringing” for the British government, but it remained silent as democracy was being eroded in Turkey.

This, she suggested, was because Turkey is too important as a NATO ally and an important trading partner - the government recently signed its first post-Brexit trade deal with Ankara to widespread criticism.

She welcomed the release of Mr Gunes earlier this week but warned that Turkey had veered from the path of democracy, and is sliding backwards to “the horrors of the past” where disappearances and torture were commonplace.

His disappearance of Mr Gunes sent shivers down her spine, the Kurdish lawmaker said with a later speaker thanking her for being the first European MP to speak out about his case in public.

“We must keep shining the light on what Turkey is doing,” Ms Clark said. “We will keep highlighting every case of forced disappearances, as we did with this case, we will keep raising the issue of attacks on the Kurdish people, and its representatives. 

“Turkey, must not and cannot be allowed to get away with brutalising and persecuting Kurdish citizens for wanting to live as equal citizens in Turkey, to have the the right to speak in their mother tongue, to be elected and to live as equals.”

She vowed to continued to raise the plight of the HDP, which has had some 20,000 activists arrested since 2016, 10,000 of whom have been jailed including 200 elected officials and 7 MPs.

Ms Clark is part of a newly established All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Syria, Turkey and Iran, she explained, which is currently hearing evidence on the treatment of Kurds and will compile a report on its findings which will be presented to the government,

“We will continue to make sure that the Kurdish issue remains a key priority whether it is a Tory government, and for my own party the Labour Party as well,” she said.

Mr Gunes had joined the meeting hosted by the Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign (KSC) earlier and thanked those who campaigned for his release saying he was surprised to learn of the scale of the international support.

“Such solidarity made me very happy,” he told the meeting. The 23 year old electrician struck a defiant tone and said he would continue the struggle for all those who have disappeared at the hands of the Turkish state.

He described the brutal treatment that was meted out to him by a sinister group who described themselves as “the invisibles.”

The men abducted him in broad daylight, electrocuting him before bundling him into the back of a car and placing a bag over his head so he couldn’t see, he explained.

He was taken to a torture centre where he was dunked in freezing cold water, threatened with rape and electrocuted. It was punishment, Mr Gunes said, for him refusing to become a state agent.

During his torture, his captors said: “We are the invisible.” Mr Gunes described being alternately dazzled by lights and then kept in darkness, so unable to see his kidnappers.

On Tuesday morning, he was taken blindfolded in a car with four people, with one known as “the chief” taking his mobile phone SIM card before abandoning him.

“These attacks against socialists have been carried out many times before,” Mr Gunes said, warning that the 1990s policy of forced disappearances has returned, warning that a shadow state is being constructed in Turkey once again.

“I don’t want any other friend to experience what I have been through,” he added. “We should be keeping this issue on the agenda so that no such incident ever occurs again.”

The importance of international solidarity was stressed, with the meeting hearing that the case of Gokhan Gunes tells us where power in society lies - through mass actions, networks of solidarity and pressure from below.

HDP MP for Izmir Murat Cepni agreed, warning of a “strategic masterplan” by the Turkish state to annihilate the party, warning of a “political genocide.”

“”We call upon the people of the region and the people of the world to unite the struggle,” he said.

ESP co vice-chair Beycan Taskiran said their party was targeted by the “fascist dictatorship” and warned that the brutality of the methods used in the notorious Diyarbakir prison had returned, highlighting the case of Free Women’s Movement (TJA) activist Rojbin Cetin who was mauled by dogs in her own home last summer, during a two-and-a-half hour interrogation by police.

The forced disappearances were meant as a threat and a warning to deter people from resisting, she said. But the methods are failing as people are continuing the struggle as seen by the youth, the Peace Mothers and others.

“This is the reality of the resistance in Turkey and Kurdistan,” she said. “We are the socialist revolutionaries supporting the resistance.”

Those attending the meeting heard a rallying call to action and pledged to deepen links with the Kurdish struggle, and to raise the voices and demands of the hunger strikers in the British labour and progressive movement. 

They were called to campaign for the freedom of all political prisoners, including jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and former HDP MP Leyla Guven,

The role of the British government in propping up Erdogan was exposed with the meeting hearing of the secret six year sale of drone technology as exposed in ANF earlier this month.

Ending arms sales to Turkey is one way of weakening the attempted genocide of Kurds and the continued political repression, with supporters encouraged to raise motions condemning the deadly trade in their trade union branches.

A call made to encourage Labour MPs to twin with their HDP counterparts as an act of solidarity, a suggestion that was taken up by a number of those present.  

Attendees vowed to write to jailed former HDP MP Leyla Guven and raise the issue of honorary membership of their national, regional and local trade union branches - a campaign initiated by journalists at Britain’s Morning Star newspaper.