Political leaders and HAZİRAN members in custody for distributing ‘pro-secularism’ flyers
Yesterday (September 24), a group of HAZİRAN members and representatives of leftist political parties got taken into custody in İstanbul’s Kadıköy, Gaziosmanpaşa, and Sultangazi districts while reading and distributing a flyer with the title of ‘We are going to achieve secularism’.
Among the 20 people that the police took into custody yesterday, there were also ÖDP (Freedom and Solidarity Party) İstanbul Head and lawyer Deniz Demirdöğen and HTKP (People’s Communist Party of Turkey) Chair Erkan Baş.
CHP İstanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş has recently shared an announcement from his personal twitter account today, saying the prosecutors ordered for some of those in custody to remain so for two days. It’s also been reported that HAZİRAN members who had been taken into custody in Gaziosmanpaşa were released yesterday in the evening hours.
As police used violence and took people into custody through battering, the public and political leaders reacted against it widely in the social media. Under the hashtag of#Laikliğikazanacağız (We are going to achieve secularism), many people expressed their support for the demonstrators and reacted against the security forces and the government. Some also shared photos (shown below) of both the recent arrests of pro-secularism demonstrators and previous arrests of pro-sharia people in order to point out the differences of approach.
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HAZİRAN member Ozan Laçin gave the following information about what happened yesterday: “As we wanted to distribute the flyers, titled ‘We are going to achieve secularism’, we got attacked (by the police). We know exactly why this attack took place. We have been attacked because of the fact that we continue our fight for secularism in the face of some bigot Islamic gangs. The government which refers to the word ‘democracy’ in any chance it gets has been trying to turn the country into a dark regime under state of emergency. And, we demand freedom and equality in opposition to this darkness!”
Meanwhile, HAZİRAN has announced that there will be a gathering in front of Kadıköy pier today at 17:00 to protest against the recent arrests.
Reactions from political leaders
Several political representatives and leaders have also criticized the treatment of the demonstrators and their arrests. Some of these messages were as the following:
HDP (People’s Democratic Party) Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş: ‘What was done to Erkan Baş and other HAZİRAN members is obviously torture; and, the honor of humanity is going to win over torture for sure!’
EHP (Labour Movement Party) Chair Sibel Uzun: ‘Revolutionaries have not given up... HTKP Chair Erkan Başn and HAZİRAN members must be released immediately!’
CHP MP Mahmut Tanel: ‘HAZİRAN members who have been taken into custody for distributing pro-secularism flyers are not alone!’
CHP MP Yıldız Tur Biçer: ‘For those exploiter vampires who find in themselves the freedom to sin, secularism is the sun light!’
https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/gun-gericilige-direnme-gunu-129249.html