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.