Hands off the HDP in Turkey!

The Socialist Alliance Australia sends its warmest fraternal greetings to the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on the eve of the 21st hearing in the "Kobane" show trial against 108 HDP leaders, 28 of whom are currently being held in prison. The show trial, which will continue on February 7-9 in Ankara, Turkey, is also being used by the government in its case to shut down the HDP, which restarts in March.

The anti-democratic and hate-mongering regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is determined to suppress the HDP and all other expressions of popular democracy in Turkey and has used a corrupted judiciary to carry out a sustained campaign of repression against the HDP and its allies over many years.

The HDP's leaders, parliamentarians, mayors and other local government representatives have been removed from office and imprisoned after they were democratically elected.

Even more rank and file activists of the HDP have been brutally assaulted and imprisoned.

The Erdoğan regime seeks to criminalise the HDP for standing up for peace, democracy and justice – and particularly for speaking up for the rights of the Kurdish people.

The Socialist Alliance joins the calls from other democratic parties, organisations and prominent individuals around the world for an end to this repression.

[This statement was adopted by the Socialist Alliance National Executive on February 4].