In Turkey, the pro-Kurdish party HDP launches its “march for democracy”

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In Turkey, the HDP launched, on Monday, June 15, a "march of democracy against the coup", after two of its deputies were expelled from their mandate in early June. Until Saturday, elected officials and activists of the pro-Kurdish party plan to cross the country to denounce the repression suffered by their training. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not intend to let them do it.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul , Anne Andlauer

The pro-Kurdish party's march has barely started when the Turkish authorities are already doing everything to stop it. In Silivri, on the outskirts of Istanbul, the police dispersed with tear gas the crowd that had gathered to launch the first stage of a six-day program. At least eleven people have been taken into custody.

Demonstrations were banned and entries and exits limited in a dozen provinces through which this march must pass. A symbolic walk, in reality, since it is rather a caravan with, at each stage, meetings with associations and activists of the HDP .

Symbol, too, in the chosen route, with two starting points: Edirne, the most north-west city of Turkey, and Hakkari, the most south-east and a single point of arrival: Ankara, the capital city. The HDP, admittedly focused on the Kurdish question, intends to represent the whole of Turkey.

It is also in Edirne that Selahattin Demirtas, former co-president of the party, has been imprisoned since November 2016. Hakkari, for its part, is the city represented by deputy Leyla Güven , another figure in the Kurdish cause, before being stripped of her mandate on June 4. Just like 51 of the 65 pro-Kurdish mayors elected last year.

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• Turkey
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan

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