BDP leader mentions progress in KCK case

DİYARBAKIR - Doğan News Agency

BDP co-chair Demirtaş attended the trial at the courthouse yesterday. AA photo

The main trial for the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and Turkey Council (TM) was still underway in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır when the Hürriyet Daily News went to print yesterday. 

“As you know, the trials had made no progress for a while. There was deadlock. The court had refused to bring in the detainees together. It refused to take their defense in their mother tongue and the defendants’ lawyers decided not to enter the trial for that reason. Some of these problems have been overcome in this latest session,” said Selahattin Demirtaş, co-chairman of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). 

Some 104 suspects arrested pending trial were brought to the courtroom yesterday for the hearings. There were a total of 152 suspects implicated in the case, including BDP deputies, mayors and party administrators.

“We hope the trial makes progress and that the right to issue a defense in one’s native tongue is at least recognized. Our friends have now been under arrest for nearly three years. Not a single person has been released since then,” Demirtaş said.

Releasing suspects from the trial would strengthen hopes for a solution to Turkey’s Kurdish problem, said Demirtaş. The BDP is primarily focused on the Kurdish issue. 

The KCK is the alleged urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.