Published by HDP on May 4, 2017
Contagious Courage
They’ll say ‘silence!’
And, they’ll say ‘no colors!’
You would have been rising up in joy,
But they’ll say ‘no roses should blossom’
Then, let’s laugh so that your revolt does not get orphaned.
And, if that’s a crime; then, let it be…
May the smile of people remain fadeless.
They’ll say ‘the sun should not rise!’
And, they’ll pull a gun on hope.
But you will have been rising up in speed.
They’ll put the blame on you.
Then, let’s run so that your revolt does not get lonely!
And, if that’s a crime, then, let it be…
Don’t drive people crazy!
The Erdoğan-AKP government’s repression onthe HDP has reached the level of utter madness.On May 2, the police raidedthe HDP’s office in the town of Dargeçit(Mardin province)and seized a poster displaying a photograph of our Co-chair Mr. Selahattin Demirtaş and a poem he had penned in prison, titled “Contagious Courage.”During the raid, our party representatives were told that the Public Prosecutor in Mardinbanned the poem,for itdisseminated terror propaganda. Later on the same day, Mardin Criminal Court of Justice No.2 ratified the orders of prosecution, arguing,“these materials can be used as evidence if Mr. Demirtaş is found guilty in the future.”That is, the court already collected the “evidence” for a crime that would be legally deliberated at an undetermined future. This scandalous mode of reasoning relays not only the present state of Turkish judiciary under Erdoğan-AKP’s partisan tutelage but also points to the extent lawlessness awaiting the country under the impending presidential regime.
We understand that this para-legal politics of silencing and terror against our party not only seeks to sustain the “economy of fear” on which the Erdoğan-AKP rule in the country is founded, but also reflects the government’s level of fear from the voice of opposition that the HDP represents.
We join voices with our Co-chair and state once again that we shall never let our country bow down to fear in silence. Courage is contagious!
HişyarÖzsoy
Vice Co-chair, Responsible for Foreign Affairs
Member of Parliament
4 May 2017
