Officially, the defendants are accused of being members of a terrorist organization and of endangering the “unity and territorial integrity of the state.” In fact, intellectuals and outsiders interpret this process as an act of revenge by the AKP government against its political, pro-Kurdish opponents.
[10] In September 2021 against several HDP politicians like the mayor of Kars Ayhan Bilgen, or the MPs Sırri Süreyya Önder and Ayla Akat Ata was ordered pre-trial detention.
[18] Other prominent defendants (beside the mentioned above) are Ahmet Türk, Emine Ayna, Ertugrul Kürkcü, Gülser Yildirim, Yurdusev Özsökmenler and Hatip Dicle.
Demirtas questioned the fact that an indictment of over 3500 pages was able to be examined and accepted within less than ten days[19] or how a politician of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was able to tweet about the proceedings of the court before the HDP or the press knew about them.
[21] The HDP Co-chair during the protests Figen Yüksekdag assumed the prosecution had mixed up names, because a speech of Kamuran Yüksek was included into the case-file like one she gave herself.
[21] In the third hearing on 15 June,[22] the court ordered the release pending trial to four defendants including the former mayor of Kars, Ayhan Bilgen.
[28] In the eleventh hearing of April 2022 a witness declared the statement he signed before a prosecutor in Antalya does not represent what he said at the time and that in Kobani people defended their democratic rights.