Turkey’s Kurdish movement seeks to mobilize street protests
Turkey’s main Kurdish political movement has called for street protests against government oppression but faced a stiff police blockade on the first day of the initiative.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — On the morning of July 25, Diyarbakir, the central city of Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, was visibly gripped by commotion. The police had erected barriers around a park in the city and blocked all streets leading to the place. The reason for the extraordinary measures was the parliamentary group meeting that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey’s main Kurdish political movement, was planning to hold in the park.
The parties’ parliamentary group meetings are normally held in parliament, but the HDP this time opted for outdoors following a decision to take to the streets against the clampdown the party has faced since its landmark electoral success in June 2015. Ankara’s suppression campaign has intensified under the state of emergency since last year’s coup attempt, extending to all oppositional quarters. Hundreds of HDP members, including lawmakers and party leader Selahattin Demirtas, have landed behind bars, while dozens of Kurdish-run local administrations have been handed over to government-appointed trustees.
Under the state of emergency, the authorities had denied permission to almost all HDP applications to hold public demonstrations. This time permission was granted — or so the party believed until the participants began to gather for the event, which was to be followed by a weeklong sit-in called a “democracy watch.” Only the lawmakers were allowed to enter the park; all other party activists were barred from the venue despite all protests and arguments. The lawmakers, however, were up for further frustration. When they stepped into the park, they discovered that all green spaces had been cordoned off as well, with only the cement ground in the middle made available to them.
This meant the sit-in was supposed to proceed under a scorching sun, with summer temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Diyarbakir. Exasperated, HDP spokesman Osman Baydemir likened the scene to the Battle of Karbala, a milestone episode in Islamic history in which Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was left without water in the desert and then killed in fighting by the men of Umayyad caliph Yazid.
