Heavy prison sentences imposed by an Ankara court on popular Kurdish politicians in the trial related to Turkey’s 2014 Kurdish uprising are causing strong reactions in Turkey.

Among those convicted are Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP), h Figen Yuksekdag, also co-chairman of the HDP, h Gultan Kisanak, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Ahmet Turk, current mayor of the city of Mardin and former co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).

The court sentenced Demirtas to 42 years, Yuksekdag to 30 years and 3 months, Kisanak to 12 years and 82-year-old Turk to 10 years, Turkish media reported.

Violent reactions

“The court hands out sentences and knows that its decisions are illegal. We live in a dark day. Those who made these decisions will continue to be in the dustbin of history,” said Zezai Temeli, parliamentary representative of the pro-Kurdish party DEM.

“I am not continuing the work in the Parliament, and I express my support to all my friends who are in the cells,” said Siri Sureya Oder, vice president of the parliament and DEM deputy, according to Manolis Kostidis.

“This is a civil trial. Because the trial began 5 years after the events, the indictment was prepared over many years by the leader of a single political party. The duration of the trial, the way it was conducted until the decision was left to be announced after the elections. The multi-year sentences of Selahattin Demiras and Figen Yüksekdag who were co-chairmen of a party and accused cannot be accepted. There is no justice, no legitimacy in this trial. The whole process is like this” pointed out the president of the official opposition, the CHP, Özgür Ozel.

The dramatic developments in Kobani in 2014

In October 2014, the Islamic State launched a large-scale operation to capture Kobani in northern Syria with a predominantly Kurdish population. Since October, the Islamic State has begun to make significant progress from the periphery to the city center.

During this period, pro-Kobani demonstrations were organized in various cities in Turkey, while HDP officials held meetings with the Turkish authorities since the beginning of the crisis. One of the HDP’s key demands was the opening of a corridor to Kobani through Turkish territory, in order for military aid from other parts of northern Syria and the autonomous Kurdish government of northern Iraq to reach there.

On October 6, the HDP called on citizens via Twitter to take to the streets of Turkey to protest, as they did on a massive scale, mostly in cities in the east and southeast of the country.

Erdogan’s attitude towards the Islamic State

At the same time, the possibility of airstrikes on Kobani by Western countries was raised, but the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ruled out this proposal, stating that airstrikes cannot solve the battle against the Islamic State.
By 8 October, violence had intensified with clashes between security forces and protesters and, in some places, between protesters and Turkish civilians who clashed alongside security forces.

Selahattin Demirtas, at a press conference in Diyarbakir, defended the protests but condemned the violence. On 9 October the incidents ended, but 37 people were killed and hundreds were injured, and serious damage was caused.