Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) strongly condemns the latest round of mass arrests of members of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) by the Erdogan government in Turkey. Arrest warrants have been issued against 82 members of HDP yesterday, for their involvement in the solidarity protests in Turkey six years ago. Those protests were organised to express solidarity with Kobane, a Kurdish town in Rojava (Northern Syria) which was under siege by ISIS terrorists during that time.

The mass arrests against members of the third largest party in the Turkish Parliament is an assault on democracy by the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan regime. HDP has been experienced numerous attacks from the Erdogan regime in recent years, with at least 16,000 HDP members have been arrested since 2015 and over 5000 of them were sent to prisons. The continuous attack by the Erdogan regime against HDP is an attempt to deny the Turkish people an alternative for a democratic future that will bring meaningful change to the Middle East and Europe.

We call on the government of Malaysia to summon the Turkish Ambassador to demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in Turkey and stop crackdown on democratic activists, including pro-Kurdish activists and HDP members.

We express our solidarity with the HDP members in their ongoing struggle for freedom, justice, and dignity in Turkey.