TURKEY’S opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) declared today that it is fighting for “the democracy, peace, equality and freedom of the country” as a mass trial of members reopened in Ankara. 

Co-chair Pervin Buldan said the so-called Kobane trial, in which more than 100 senior HDP figures have been indicted, is an attempt to eliminate Kurds from the political arena. 

“Today we are living in a period in which important actors in Kurdish political history are being charged for an indictment created for political reasons,” she said ahead of yesterday’s hearing. 

Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for the 108 defendants, who face a number of serious charges including “disrupting the unity of the state” and 37 charges of homicide.

They are accused of causing the deaths of their own supporters by calling for street protests in defence of the Syrian city of Kobane as it was held under siege by Isis in October 2014.

Dozens of people were shot dead by security forces and government-affiliated paramilitary gangs during the unrest in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east, but none of the perpetrators have faced charges for the killings.

The charges against the HDP are seen as part of a continuing politically motivated repression driven by Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

“We all know very well that there is no fair trial,” Ms Buldan said outside the Sincan prison courtroom in the Turkish capital. 

Describing the case as a conspiracy led by Mr Erdogan and his ruling Justice & Development Party (AKP), the HDP co-leader said the party would “stand by our friends until the end.”

Trade unionists and progressives rallied in support of the HDP, attending the hearing in solidarity with the leftist party. 

Mehmet Bozgeyik, co-chair of the public-sector workers’ union confederation Kesk, said the charges exposed a process of “open fascism” and the repression of democratic politics. 

He said that at the time of the Isis siege of Kobane, the union also called for an end to the attacks and threatened to strike in a bid to force the government to act. 

“If there is a trial, then we all have to be judged,” he insisted, saying the HDP case “is the biggest blow to Turkey’s democracy.”

If we remain silent on this then it will be our turn next, Mr Bozgeyik added. 

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), which has been criticised for its lukewarm approach to the HDP, said it stood by the party and the unlawfulness of the case. 

“We believe in the struggle of those that do not bow down,” TKP member Ali Ufuk Arikan said. 

The foundation of the HDP in 2012, uniting communists, trade unionists, environmentalists and the Kurdish movement, represented a major step forward for democracy in Turkey.

But it has faced severe repression, which escalated after it secured 80 seats in 2015 in Turkey’s single-chamber parliament, the grand assembly, ending the parliamentary majority of the AKP.

Some 20,000 HDP members have been detained since 2016,10,000 of whom were jailed, including more than 200 elected officials and MPs.