Turkey: Freedom for the Prisoners of the Kobanê Case!

Written by: Solidarity Initiative for Figen Yüksekdag on 2 September 2024

We have been contacted by the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey and asked to publicise the case of leaders arrested in 2016 for supporting the Kurdish revolutionary forces in Kobane in neighbouring Syria. 

The HDP is a social democratic party with representation in the Turkish parliament. It is not a revolutionary party but has opposed the reactionary, fascist Erdogan regime.

In 2014, it called for demonstrations in support of Kobane, whose majority Kurdish people were fighting a life and death battle with ISIS.  They were ultimately successful but the region they have liberated in north-east Syria presents a threat to Turkey, which keeps its own Kurds under draconian control, and is today bombing the Syrian Kurds.

We support the right of the HDP to support Kobane and to oppose the Erdogan regime – eds.

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Freedom for the Prisoners of the Kobanê Case! 
 

On May 16, 2024, the protracted “Kobanê Case” in Turkey concluded with an immense verdict of 407 years in prison for former board members and leading figures of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including former co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, who have been detained since November 4, 2016. Those convicted in this trial stand as symbols of the relentless fight for equality, justice, and freedom in Turkey. 

The resistance of the people of Kobanê against the brutal ISIS attack in October 2014 garnered global sympathy and political and practical support. Thanks to the heroic resistance of the Kurdish freedom fighters and international solidarity, Kobanê did not fall; instead, it marked the beginning of ISIS's defeat. The HDP's solidarity with the people of Kobanê and its call for support for this people is a completely democratic and legitimate right and cannot be used as a pretext for this trial. 

The Kobanê Trial has clearly demonstrated that the judiciary in Turkey is not independent and has become an extension of political power. Ongoing bans against the HDP, arrests and suppression of democratic opposition, restrictions on assembly and demonstration rights, the isolation of prisoners and denial of their medical care, and media censorship are all manifestations of the multifaceted attack on democratic freedoms in Turkey. This is also evident in the non-implementation of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments, such as those in the cases of Yüksekdağ, Demirtaş, and Kavala. 

We view the trials and lengthy sentences against the HDP's leading figures as expressions of the Erdoğan dictatorship's efforts to suppress democratic opposition. We express our solidarity with Figen Yüksekdağ, Selahattin Demirtaş, and all those convicted in this trial, who steadfastly stand against this injustice and for democracy and political freedom. 

We demand the annulment of the sentences for the prisoners of the Kobanê show trial and the immediate release of Figen Yüksekdağ, Selahattin Demirtaş, Alp Altınörs, Ali Ürküt, Aynur Aşan, Bülent Parmaksız, Dilek Yağlı, Günay Kubilay, İsmail Şengül, Nazmi Gür, Pervin Oduncu, and Zeynep Ölbeci. 
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Who is Figen Yüksekdağ? 

Figen Yüksekdağ is pioneering advocate for freedom and equality and a representative of the socialist movement in Turkey. Born on November 9, 1971, in Adana-Ceyhan, she was introduced to socialist ideals during her school years. Her political activities led her into conflict with the Turkish state at a young age, resulting in arrests and repression. As a student, she was involved in various student associations advocating for democratic and social rights, including the High School Students' Association (LÖB), the Working High School Students' Association, and the Association of Democratic High School Students. 

During her university years, Yüksekdağ founded student unions and later worked as a journalist for various socialist publications such as the youth magazine Özgür Gençlik and the weekly newspaper Atılım. Her commitment to women's rights was evident in her role as editor of the magazine Sosyalist Kadın (Socialist Woman). 

Her political activities intensified in 2002 when she became the spokesperson for the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed. Despite serving a one-year prison sentence in 2006, she continued her work and contributed to the founding of the Working Women's Association. Her participation in the funeral of the socialist intellectual Kutsiye Bozoklar in 2009 led to another arrest. 

In 2010, she played a key role in founding the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and became its chairperson. Amidst a period of global political upheaval, including the Arab uprisings and the Gezi Park uprising in Turkey in 2013, as well as growing social protests against the global economic crisis, she participated in the founding process of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). In June 2014, she was elected as co-chair of the HDP alongside Selahattin Demirtaş. 

As a Member of Parliament for the Kurdish region of Van from 2015 to 2018, Yüksekdağ faced constant attacks and repression from the Turkish government, which viewed her position and the role of the HDP as a threat. On November 4, 2016, she was arrested along with other leading HDP representatives as part of the so-called Kobanê trial. 

Even in prison, Yüksekdağ continued her resistance. Her poetry collection The Walls Will Collapse, written in prison, was banned and confiscated. Yüksekdağ remains a symbolic figure in the fight for women's freedom, the self-determination of peoples, and against exploitation and oppression, both inside and outside the prison walls.

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