The 7th hearing of the Kobanê Case against 108 people, including the former Co-Chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and members of the Central Executive Board (MYK), based on the protests that took place on October 6-8, 2014 against ISIS's attacks on Kobanê will be held today. In the hearings that have been going on since April, the lawyers repeatedly reminded the "immediate release" decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Grand Chamber on 22 December 2020 and demanded that all detainees to be released. However, the court rejected the demands, claiming that there was some evidence that emerged after the ECtHR's decision and that they could not be ignored.

 

The evidence that the court claims to have emerged after the ECtHR decision, is the statements of secret witness Mahir and witness Kerem Gökalp that “KCK Turkey Spokespersons” attended the MYK and Party Assembly (PM) meetings, and one E-mail, titled 'Urgent call' claimed to be sent by the PYD to the HDP as an instruction.

 

E-MAIL WAS SENT TO THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

 

When the court rejected immediate release decision of the ECtHR, the attorneys of the defendants stated that the e-mail in question was sent to multiple political parties and persons including the Republican People's Party (CHP), requested that the court determines to whom the e-mail was sent to, other than the HDP. The court excepted the request and wrote to relevant offices but none of them were replied yet. But it was revelead that, just like the attorneys said, the mail was published in a web site and sent to thousands of different e- mail addresses and it was written by the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), not the PYD.

 

Peace Academic Cenk Yiğiter, who was dismissed from Ankara University Faculty of Law made a research on the rejection decision of the court and found out these facts. Yiğiter spoke to Mesopotamia Agency (MA) about the facts he uncovered.

 

IT WAS ALSO SENT TO A NORWAGIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN

 

Expressing that the e-mail allegedly sent by the PYD to the HDP is a one-page text of a call, Yiğiter said, “The text explains that Kobanê is in a difficult situation, ISIS members have powerful weapons, but the forces defending Kobanê does not have enough weapons to repel these attacks and call the world to awareness. It was written by the KNK sent by an account called pydeuropa.info. As its name suggests, it is an account opened to inform the public about the PYD in Europe. This account took the same text of KNK and sent it to a number of people and political parties and persons. One of them is Nazmi Gür. Nazmi Gür was a member of HDP's Foreign Relations Commission at that time. But it was sent to other people as well. For example, the same e-mail was sent to a parliamentarian in Norway.

 

IT SPREADED OVER THE INTERNET

 

Yiğiter pointed out that the same text was also found on KNK's web page on October 6, 2014, when he scanned the web archives and said, "KNK later changed its domain and its current domain is also open to access in Turkey. This text from October 6, 2014 is still there. In fact, in order to show how much this text has spread, I saw that people are discussing it in some forums and someone has copied and pasted the same text in that forum. The same text is also included in the October 2014 issue of the English journal Eaeyopia. On October 6, this text was widely shared online and sent to thousands of e-mail addresses and this can be found out with a simple search online which indicates that this is not a 'special instruction to the HDP'.

 

THE CLAIM THAT KCK SPOKESPERSONS WAS IN THE MEETING

 

Regarding the second reason of the court not to comply with the ECtHR decision, which is the claim that KCK spokespersons were in the meeting, Yiğiter said: "There is only one sentence in the witness statement and it is, 'I know that KCK spokespersons were in the meeting'. There is not a name, not a description of the features and appearance of a person or a codename. Both statements from two different witnesses are same, word by word. Even the typos in the statements are the same. These are very serious accusations. However the meeting was held in the Education Union Headquarters. The same place was subjected to an audio surveillence before. It would be very ridiculous to chose a place for the meeting that has been wiretapped before if you have something to hide. This whole thing indicates that it was a very routine and ordinary meeting."

 

Reminding that these two reasons are the only reasons for the court not to comply with the ECtHR decision, Yiğiter said: "The decision not to comply with the decision of the ECtHR is null and void. It is a good TV series scenerio though."

 

'FORCES OF DEMOCRACY WILL DETERMINE THE RESULT OF THIS HEARING'

 

Stating that it is impossible for a prison sentence to come out of this hearing, Yiğiter said: "Both the court board and we are aware of this. But this is a political case. The law suit was filed 6 years after the incident. Before the election, a court decision accusing the HDP MYK of such major crimes strengthens the political power. They want to generate pressure for the closure case against the HDP with this hearing. But those who turned this case into a plot do not know what will happen as well. It is not clear whether it will go unsold or not. They just want to speed it up. But it will be the pressure of the social opposition and democratic forces that will determine where the case will evolve. Anything we do to nullify the case will be very meaningful, and that will determine the outcome. The lawsuit also means anyone involved in legal politics will be under constant pressure and the outcome of this case, if it ends with a sentence, will mean that other parties and peoples can be targeted like this, which is very, very dangerous."

 

MA / Zemo Ağgöz