HDP’s Demirtaş in Court: "I stand by what I said and did" “We were accused of many things, but the real sabotage came once again from the Turkish side which did not want the peace process to begin and worked, with its intelligence, to sabotage this historic attempt”.

HDP’s Demirtaş in Court: "I stand by what I said and did"
“We were accused of many things, but the real sabotage came once again from the Turkish side which did not want the peace process to begin and worked, with its intelligence, to sabotage this historic attempt”.

The third hearing of the main trial of Selahattin Demirtaş, Co-Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was held on Wednesday. On Tuesday night Demirtaş was brought to Sincan Prison from Edirne F Type Closed Prison where he is jailed.

HDP Co-Chairs Sezai Temelli and Pervin Buldan, several party MPs and supporters from Ankara and neighboring cities attended the hearing.

Demirtaş, himself a lawyer, reminded that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had opted for "no jurisdiction" decision and sent the file to Amed, despite a decision by the Ankara Heavy Criminal Court that had said the opposite. Demirtaş said:

"Normally, the jurisdiction issue should have been resolved: there are two heavy penal court decisions. There is a weird thing going on between Ankara and Diyarbakir. Nobody seems to want to decide who has jurisdiction. They finally seemed to have agreed it’s Ankara’s turn to open the trial. Yet, despite the decision of two heavy penal courts, the file continues to go back and forward. Therefore, since no prosecutor was able to assume the role of coordinator, it’s up to any of these prosecutors to speak as they please and the file is to be finally merged in Diyarbakır”.

“I stand by what I said and did”

Demirtaş added: "I have been a MP for 12 years, co-chair for 8. We know how the State works. The operation against me was decided to happen on the evening of October 6th. But, as it happened, I had a meeting abroad, I was abroad on October 5th, therefore the operation was delayed. I also know that those who planned the arrest operation were annoyed because I had not been prevented from going abroad. As it was the operation finally went through and my friend deputies and I were indeed arrested, our house raided”.

Demirtaş continued by saying: “It was clear that it was a political operation and the prosecution was part of it. But one day in this country there will be an independent judiciary. And on that day, those judges who acted with the powers they gave themselves through the Constitution will be held accountable for all they did. For this, we will continue in our effort towards justice by any means possible.

As I mentioned in previous occasions; I do not deny anything I did nor anything I said. I have done nor said anything to be afraid of. It's all about my activities. But I have to talk about the calumny, the trap, that was set against me and the others”.

“Not 500 hundred pages, my speeches filled 5 million pages”

Demirtaş went on listing the summaries and countering each accusation, exposing that the whole case was indeed built out of traps and lies.

“My words have been taken out of the context. The indictment said a little about what I did. It's a shame for me to see that they said I've just done so much political activity. Not 500 pages, I made 5 million pages of speech. I will defend them all. But I will never consent to the calumnies and the traps being imposed on me, and your court is now judging the FETO's calumny trap”.

Demirtaş added: “The Kurdish question is met with violence, war and arms. There is no will to find a solution on the Turkish state side. Why? If Turkey solves the Kurdish problem, it won’t be able to continue with its policy which does not contemplate peace in this country.

Peace is actually an issue that can affect all global balances, change the whole scenario in a country, and many would be left a strand”.

Demirtaş then went on listing examples of how the policy of the State has been one of closure to any solution. “No matter where we speak, what we said, we are always accused of having being instructed by the PKK. Whether we are in the parliament dealing with the new Constitution, in universities dealing with Kurdish language, in councils dealing with city issues, we are always been accused of acting on instruction or on behalf of the PKK. I said it before: I never in my political life been instructed or told what to do, nor by the PKK nor by anyone else. I would never accept to be told what to do, those who know me know this perfectly well”.

Going back to the 2013 Newroz call by Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan marking a next stage of the struggle, calling on a true beginning of the peace process, Demirtaş recalled that “We were accused of many things, but the real sabotage came once again from the Turkish side which did not want the peace process to begin and worked, with its intelligence, to sabotage this historic attempt”.

Ending his statement Demirtaş said: “We make politics, we are Turkey’s third biggest party. We are not pirate demonstrators”.

Demirtaş is accused of "establishing and directing a terrorist organization", "making propaganda for the organization" charges carrying sentences of up to 142 years in prison. Demirtas has been involved in 33 cases in the last one year and his case in Ankara 19th High Criminal Court has been prepared about him before and sent to Parliament for the lifting of his immunity.

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