Turkish court releases four defendants, including ex-HDP mayor, in Kobani trial

An Ankara court on Tuesday ruled for the release of four defendants, including former pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayor Ayhan Bilgen, on trial over the 2014 Kobane protests.

The Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court released Berfin Özgü Köse, Can Memiş, Cihan Erdal along with the former mayor of eastern Kars province Bilgen on judicial control and an international travel ban, T24 news site reported.

The four are among 108 people - mostly members of the HDP, including HDP's former co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş  - on trial on charges of terrorism, murder and violence during pro-Kurdish protests across the country seven years ago.

At least 34 people were killed in the October 2014 demonstrations against an Islamic State (ISIS) siege of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane. Many in Turkey’s Kurdish community accused the Turkish military of standing by and allowing a massacre.The protests spread from the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey to several other provinces.

A total of 28 people had been arrested pending trial in the Kobane protests case, with judicial control measures on six defendants and warrants issued against another 75 people.

Tuesday marked the third hearing in the case, which is set to resume on Wednesday, according to T24.

Former Kars mayor Bilgen was detained September as a part of a years-long crackdown on the HDP, which Ankara accuses of harbouring sympathies and acting in the interest of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at war in Turkey for Kurdish self-rule for 40 years.

A total of 20 politicians and activists from the HDP detained in September on surprise charges stemming from the protests.

Since 2019, 48 of the 65 elected HDP mayors in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish eastern and south-eastern regions have been removed from office by the Interior Ministry, citing "terror" investigations.

HDP’s former co-chair Demirtaş has been jailed on a string of terror charges since 2016, along with a half-dozen other ex-lawmakers, despite two European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings calling for his release.