Court Again for One of Erdogan's Opponents in Turkey

One of the main political rivals of Turkey's President, who is also considered a leader of the opposition party advocating for the rights of the Kurdish minority in Turkey, faced trial again on charges of connections with Kurdish rebels in the country. According to Agence France-Presse, the court session for Selahattin Demirtaş was held on Thursday, December 7, while Turkish authorities have imprisoned him for over a year on similar charges. Demirtaş was arrested in November last year following the declaration of a state of emergency in Turkey after the country's failed coup, an action his supporters claim was based on 'false' accusations and 'political motivations.' Before his arrest, Demirtaş had managed to bring his party from the margins to the center of Turkish politics, becoming one of the main political rivals to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey. Currently, nine members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) are in prison, and hundreds of their supporters protested in front of the prison in Edirne province on Thursday against these detentions. Under Demirtaş's leadership, the HDP gained parliamentary seats and became one of the major opposition parties in the country, receiving votes from non-Kurdish citizens in Turkey, both from the liberal and leftist factions. The HDP, with 59 seats in the Turkish parliament, is the most significant party supporting the rights of the Kurdish ethnic minority in the country. Among the charges against 44-year-old Selahattin Demirtaş are 'managing a terrorist organization,' 'propagandizing for a terrorist group,' and 'inciting criminal acts,' which, if confirmed by the court, could lead to a sentence of '142 years in prison.' Previously, Turkish authorities accused the HDP of having ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which seeks autonomy for Kurdish regions in Turkey. In this context, around 100 legal cases have been filed against Demirtaş, but the charge of connection with the 'PKK' is the most serious among them. Figen Yüksekdağ, another leader of this party, is also imprisoned on similar charges. HDP officials have denied the accusations against their party, stating that the leaders are being punished for opposing Erdoğan's efforts to establish a 'presidential system.' Previously, Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, expressed deep concern over the arrests of HDP members, emphasizing that the detained leaders were elected by the democratic vote of the people and are trusted individuals by the EU. These arrests have also drawn reactions from the UN Human Rights Office, which warned that what Turkish authorities are doing under their emergency powers is 'beyond permissible limits.' The foreign ministers of the UK and Germany have also expressed their concerns over the treatment of political opponents and media activists in Turkey, with the German foreign minister stating that Turkey's fight against terrorism should not be an excuse to silence political opponents. Since the failed coup in Turkey last summer, over 35,000 people have been arrested, and simultaneously tens of thousands of judges, prosecutors, and government employees have been dismissed from their jobs.