Turkey’s HDP condemns Spanish violations against Catalonia people

CAIRO - 22 September 2017: The Turkish Peoples’ Democratic Party (in Turkish: Halkların Demokratik Partisi ‘HDP’) condemned the Spanish government’s attempts to prevent the independence referendum of the Catalonia region, which will be held on October 1, 2017, defending the people’s right to vote in an official statement released Friday.

The pro-Kurdish party denounced the prosecution of 712 mayors of Catalonia who supported the referendum, the raiding of printing houses, and the seizure of ballot envelopes, ballot boxes and information brochures that will be used in the referendum. Newspaper headquarters also were raided and prevented from making news about the referendum, and their internet sites were closed down, according to HDP’s statement.

The Catalan government earlier this week accused the Spanish authorities of effectively taking over its administration after state police raided its offices and arrested officials, and the Finance Ministry took control of the local finance department.

On the other hand, Spain's Interior Ministry sent Friday more state police to Catalonia to maintain order and make sure a banned referendum on independence does not take place.

“As the People's Democratic Party, we support the Catalan people's right to self-determination. The prevention by force of the expression of the people’s will is never acceptable,” the statement read, adding that “the constitutional rights of the Autonomic Region of Catalonia cannot be suspended on the pretext of preventing the referendum.”

The HDP announced that it will continue to stand with the Catalan people, the Autonomic Assembly of Catalonia, the Government of Catalonia and the oppressed political parties, urging Rajoy’s government to show respect to the Catalan people’s right to vote and to end the oppression against the representatives of the Catalan Autonomic Region.