Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, who has been in prison for 7 years, was sentenced to 42 years in prison for 47 separate offenses in the trial related to the 2014 Kobani protests in Turkey.
Today (16/5) the verdict was announced in the so-called Kobani trial, where 108 members of the pro-Kurdish HDP party are accused, including former co-presidents Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yükşekdag.
MPs from the successor pro-Kurdish DEM party protested the decisions in parliament.
What are the events in Kobani?
The Kobani events are the protests and violence that took place in Turkey following the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack on Kobani in September 2014. Ayn-el Arab in Arabic, Kobani in Kurdish, is a city in northwestern Syria, neighboring the Surouch district of Sanliurfa. The Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) took control of the city in Aleppo province shortly following the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. In September 2014, ISIS launched a widespread offensive once morest Kobani.
During this time, a process known as the “solution process” was underway in Turkey. In October, ISIL began to move from the city’s periphery to its center.
DEM Party MPs protested the sentences given to Demirtaş and other politicians in the Kobani Case in the Parliament pic.twitter.com/DutJzMo05A
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During this period, demonstrations were organized in favor of the protection of Kobani in various cities in Turkey. HDP officials have held several meetings with the Turkish authorities since the beginning of the crisis. One of the major demands of members of the pro-Kurdish HDP party was the opening of a corridor to Kobani through Turkish territory, in order for military aid from other areas of northern Syria and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to reach Kobani.
Mass protests followed in the streets
On October 6, HDP headquarters called for a street protest via Twitter regarding Kobani. Mass protests followed in the streets across the country, mainly in cities in eastern and southeastern Turkey.
On October 8, 2014, following a speech by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which said that Kobani had fallen to ISIL forces, violent protests broke out with clashes between security forces and protesters, and in some places between protesters and counter-protesters. Security forces intervened with live bullets – protesters used stones, sticks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks. In some cities, there were incidents of tension and violence between protesters and members of HUDA PAR (far-right Islamists – Erdogan’s 2023 presidential election partners).
37 dead and 761 injured in incidents
Selahattin Demirtas made a statement in Diyarbakir on October 9, defending the protests and criticizing the violence. He called for all this to stop and stated that Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, had also defended this fact in a letter they had received. On October 9, the events came to a close.
According to official figures, 37 people died and 761 people, including 326 security guards, were injured in incidents in 35 provinces and 96 districts.
In these statements it is stated that 197 schools were burned, 269 public buildings were vandalized, 1731 houses and workplaces were looted and 1230 vehicles were damaged. In the coming years, the government would blame the HDP, which had called for street protests, for the deaths and that trial ended today with the convictions once morest most of the accused.
Orhan Pamuk next to the defendants
In an open letter, 159 signatories, including Orhan Pamuk and Raquel Dink, had called for the prisoners’ release and said the verdict would affect the country’s future.
In his T24 column, the well-known journalist Murat Sabunju had written that the result will show the government’s approach to the Kurdish issue.
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