A Turkish court has handed down a 42-year prison sentence to a former leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, Selahattin Demirtas. Demirtas, 51, has been incarcerated since 2016 and was found guilty of various charges, including his alleged role in the violent riots that erupted in 2014 during the takeover of the Syrian town of Kobane by insurgents.
The court, situated in Sincan on the outskirts of Ankara, also delivered a 30-year and three-month sentence to the HDP’s former co-chair, Figen Yuksekdag, according to reports from private broadcaster NTV and rights group MLSA.
While some politicians, such as Gultan Kisanak, the former mayor of Diyarbakir, were ordered to be released, numerous others received jail terms. This legal action against former members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including Demirtas and Yuksekdag, is linked to a distressing episode during the prolonged Syrian conflict.
The unrest saw 37 casualties as protests erupted against the Turkish army’s perceived inaction during the IS offensive on Kobane, visible from the Turkish border. Many within Turkey’s Kurdish community held the army accountable for the resulting humanitarian crisis.
Demirtas denounced the trial as an act of vengeance in his 2023 testimony, asserting that it lacked any substantive evidence against him. His prolonged detention and the legal proceedings against him and other HDP members have drawn criticism from Western governments, with the European Court of Human Rights repeatedly urging for his release.
The verdict sparked protests, with lawmakers from the DEM Party displaying portraits of former party leaders in parliament and using the hashtag “Kobane is our honour” on social media. However, the Diyarbakir governor’s office imposed a four-day ban on protests in the city.
The co-chair of the DEM Party, Tuncer Bakirhan, condemned the verdict as a blot on Turkish justice history, characterising it as a systematic attempt to eliminate Kurdish and revolutionary voices from the political arena.
The prosecutors accused the defendants of various crimes, including attacking state integrity, looting, and murder, and sought aggravated life sentences for several suspects.
Despite President Erdogan’s recent remarks about a softening in politics following his party’s electoral setbacks, defence lawyers intend to appeal the verdict, highlighting ongoing concerns about political prisoners in Turkey’s legal system.
