A group of Danish parliamentarians, including leaders of leftist party and former ministers, held a demonstration in front of the Danish Parliament in solidarity with the arrested deputies and co-chairs of pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) to raise awareness and call Turkish government to free them.
Parliamentarians from the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), Socialist People’s Party (SF) and The Alternative (Alternativet) gathered in front of the parliament and held a demonstration for the arrested HDP deputies. Danish parliamentarians carried posters with photographs of the arrested deputies including the co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and banners that read “FreeHDPNow”.
The statement the Danish MPs read stressed that the imprisonment of democratically elected HDP deputies is unacceptable and that they wanted to raise awareness with their demonstration.
The Red-Green Alliance spokesperson Pernille Skipper, the party’s international affairs spokesperson Nikolay Villumsen, SF leader Pia Olsen Dyhr, former Foreign Minister Holger K. Nielsen and The Alternative leader Uffe Elbaek were among the demonstrating Danish parliamentarians.
Turkey has stepped up political pressure on Kurdish politicians in recent months. In addition to appointment of trustees to the management of scores of municipalities, Turkey has arrested dozens of Kurdish politicians, among them 13 HDP deputies including the party’s co-chairs.
April 7, 2017
