HDP holds 'justice rally' in Diyarbakır

The Kurdish-question focused People's Democratic Party (HDP) held a grand meeting in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır titled "Justice, Conscience and Democracy" in protest of the current state of democracy in Turkey and arrests of its lawmakers.

HDP co-leader Serpil Kemalbay, Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-leaders Leyla Güven and Berdan Öztürk attended the rally along with HDP lawmakers and representatives.

At the rally, the letter written by imprisoned former HDP co-leader Figen Yüksekdağ from Kandıra Prison was read aloud. "The campaign we have initiated saying 'Let's not stop ourselves, let's stop fascism' paved a way for justice by the hands of suppressed people, workers, laborers, youth and women. Our Justice and Conscience meetings and the meetings we have started today will have their place in history for their role against fascism," read the letter Yüksekdağ delivered via her lawyers.

HDP co-leader Kemalbay criticized the imprisonment of HDP lawmakers regarding it as a "strike against the third biggest party in the parliament."

"We have carried out sit-in protests in Diyarbakır, Istanbul, Van and İzmir for justice and conscience. Our protests were isolated, blocked by police barricades. We are carrying out our struggle under such conditions. We will never surrender, we will create a new life by resisting," she said.

Criticizing the attack on the funeral of imprisoned lawmaker Aysel Tuğluk's mother, Kemalbay said the underlying reason for the attacks are "the unlawful and inhumane steps of those who attempt political engineering."

"We condemn those who perpetrated such attacks and those who did not resign," she said.

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