Jonathan Steele commented on the closure case of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the ongoing oppressive politics of the Turkish state against the opposition within the country. “The HDP has been voted in by almost six million people and has 55 members of the Turkish parliament. How can you ban such a big party?,” he said and added, “It is a disgrace that HDP members are charged.”

Steele also commented on the latest attack on the HDP Izmir Branch Party Building and party member Deniz Poyraz’s murder by an assassin on 17 June. “The attack is terrible.The police were standing and not doing anything. They were just surrounding the building. They did not rescue anybody: this shows the state is in collusion with the police and whoever did the killing,” he said.

Steele stressed that people struggling for justice in Turkey are living under the risk of losing their lives, as evidenced by the Deniz Poyraz case, and he noted that the murder of people seeking democracy and justice in this way is “a terrible step” that is being taken in Turkey.