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June 30th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Turkey’s leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP) appealed to the European Court of Human Rights saying the party has exhausted all domestic remedies. The HDP stressed that around 10,000 of its members and supporters, including Mayors and other officials associated with the party have been arrested and MPs have had their immunity stripped to be charged on trumped-up charges.
Member of Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in front of the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday. Photo: HDP
Some of the about 10,000 detained have subsequently been released with or without bail, but many remain in jail. HDP’s leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdag have both been jailed on terrorism convictions for alleged association with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Yüksekdag, at the time of her arrest an elected MP, was stripped of her immunity, and subsequently her party membership. The HDP elected Serpil Kemalbay to fill her place last month. The elected MPs were charged after the parliament voted to lift parliamentary immunity from a select group of its members, including many from the pro-Kurdish HDP.
That is, the HDP is particularly strong in predominantly Kurdish areas of Turkey. The HDP also opposed the AKP government’s decision to unilaterally end the ceasefire between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) as well as ongoing peace talks.
The HDP says they are being directly targeted by the ruling, Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir stated in a press release on Thursday “Demirtas has been in prison for 237 days now, members of parliament are in prison, mayors are in prison – and the name for this is not fair judicial process, this can only be described as a purge targeting a particular political movement carried out by the government itself.”
He stressed that he was speaking on behalf of the 6 million people who voted HDP MPs into parliament and whose political will “has been imprisoned.” Baydemir also alleged that Turkish courts are being used by Erdogan as “tools to suppress the opposition.” Consequently, concluded Baydemir, all “domestic remedies in Turkey are unsuitable and blocked”.
The HDP filed an application before the European Court of Human Rights in February with respect to the detention of Demirtas and Yüksekdag. The Court then stated that it only had a mandate after all domestic remedies had been exhausted. Baydemir now called for the court to announce a decision, saying they had gathered in front of the court because “domestic remedies in Turkey are not effective.” “Human rights, law and democracy cannot be considered an internal matter of any country. Human rights, justice, freedom and equality are common values of humanity,” he stated.
CH/L – nsnbc 30.06.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/06/30/after-exhausting-all-domestic-remedies-turkeys-hdp-appeals-to-european-court-of-human-rights/
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