ISTANBUL - Stating that the entire opposition should condemn the fact that his client Gültan Kışanak was not released despite completing her detention period, Lawyer Cihan Aydın said: "Because this is a matter of squelching the entire opposition."

 

Former Amed(Diyarbakır) Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Gültan Kışanak, who has been detained since 2016 within the scope of the Kobanê Case, which was opened on the grounds of the actions carried out on October 6-8, 2014 against the attacks of ISIS against Kobanê, has been sentenced to the 7-year maximum sentence specified in the Criminal Court Law (CMK). She is not released even though her arrest period has expired. The objections and applications made by Kışanak's lawyers against his continued arrest have not yet been resolved.

 

Cihan Aydın, one of Gültan Kışanak's lawyers, spoke to our agency about the relationship between the Kobanê Case and Kışanak's arrest and the continuation of her arrest.

 

Advocate, Cihan Aydın

 

'THE TARGET OF THE KOBANÊ CASE IS KURDISH POLITICS'

 

Stating that the Kobanê Case was carried out in an unlawful and political manner from the beginning, Aydın said: "The main purpose of the case was to keep Kurdish politics out of Turkey's political equation. We named the case as the "Kobane Conspiracy Case" for this reason. All the blame and blame for a very dark process that took place during the Kobane protests and whose perpetrators have not been revealed until today, has fallen on our clients; however, we witness that this process is extremely dark, it is not illuminated, and attempts at parliamentary investigation to clarify it are constantly rejected."

 

'SOCIETY IS WANTED TO BE DESIGNED WITH THE CASE'

 

Describing the Kobanê Case as "a laboratory used to design society", Aydın said: "The messages given to our clients through this case, threats to our clients, attitudes and behaviors that offend personal rights are actually used as a tool to design both the opposition and the Turkish judiciary. By targeting our clients, they are actually pointing fingers at society, but at the same time they are calling on the Turkish judiciary to 'take care'; therefore, unless the judiciary is freed from the shackles that the government puts on its neck, it will not be possible to rebuild a democratic state of law in Turkey.”

 

CALL FOR JOINT STRUGGLE

 

Stating that the "illegality" carried out against Kışanak is not limited to Kışanak, Aydın said: "The decision to be made will be a decision that will affect all the people and democracy in the country. All social opposition should approach the process impartially and develop a common reaction. This is not just an issue of Gültan Kışanak, but a matter of squelching all the people of Turkey, democracy and the opposition into line. Today it is done to Mr. Kışanak, tomorrow it is done to someone else. If there is injustice, regardless of people's political views, world views, gender, affiliation, or nationality, they must stand against it and condemn it. When the Turkish opposition achieves this, there may be hope for the democratization of Turkey. Otherwise, in this turmoil, not only the Kurds and the Kurdish opposition, but all of Turkey's democratic forces and the opposition will sink together."