Progressive International: “Hands off the HDP”

Progressive International called for international solidarity and launched a petition against the detention of many journalists, politicians, lawyers, and artists, in house raids in 21 cities in Türkiye. Progressive International is an international organization aiming to unite and mobilize progressive leftist activists and organizations. The Progressive International includes philosophers and politicians such as intellectual Noam Chomsky, historian Vijay Prashad, former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis, politician Jeremy Corbyn, as well as women’s, workers’, and farmers’ organizations and political parties.

On its website, Progressive International called for a “massive international mobilization to defend Turkey’s progressive forces before and during the May 14 elections” under the slogan “Stand up to defend democracy in Turkey now”. It launched a petition to defend democracy in Türkiye. The organization issued a short statement titled “Hands off HDP” in response to the recent police raids. The statement reads as follows: “By arresting more than 110 lawyers, journalists, and officials, President Erdoğan is escalating its crackdown on the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the Green Left Party (YSP) under whose banner it is fielding candidates in the 14 May elections, and other progressive forces in Turkey.”

Many international organizations reacted to the large-scale operation. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have also condemned the detentions of lawyers, human rights defenders, and journalists. HRW called the operation a pre-election crackdown on Kurds. It also stated that the Mapping Media Freedom database has recorded 27 alerts affecting 91 Kurdish journalists, media workers or outlets over the last 12 months. On April 26, the Mesopotamia Movement for Culture and Art (TEV-ÇAND) in North East Syria also issued a joint press statement on the operations. All organizations have called on the Turkish authorities for the immediate release of the detainees.