HDP co-chair probed for calling on locals to march to restive Sur

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

The Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chair Kamuran Yüksek on March 1, after they called on locals in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır to march toward the restive Sur district.

“We do not view a 24-hour war being waged in the center of a city for three months as an ordinary situation. All Diyarbakır residents should rise up in order to lift the blockade in Sur. Everyone should march towards Sur from their residences on March 2 at 4 p.m.,” Demirtaş had said at a press conference, urging locals to be “resolute in calling for their democratic rights.”

Sur has been under military curfew amid clashes for over three months. 

In December 2015, two separate investigations were launched into the HDP co-chair over his remarks calling for “autonomy.”