Peaceful Rally in Solidarity with Detained Opposition MPs in Turkey

Protesters in front of the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles (Photo: Razmig Sarkissian)

LOS ANGELES—The Armenian community supported a protest on Friday, November 18 at the Turkish Consulate General in Los Angeles  to express outrage at the arbitrary arrests of Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag and its 10 MPs on November 4 and thousands of others in a dictatorial coup by President Erdogan.

The event was a part of a series of protests, which are organized by the Kurdish American Advocacy Group, Kurdish American Relief Fund, HDP-LA, Kurdish Community Center of Southern California and was co-sponsored by the Armenian Youth Federation-Western United States (AYF-WUS), ARF Shant Student Association (ARF-SSA), and the All-Armenian Student Association (All-ASA). More collaboration will be announced soon.

Kurdish and Armenian groups protested against the arrest of HDP leaders and MPs in Turkey (Photo: Razmig Sarkissian)

Earlier this month, the AYF, ARF-SSA, and the All-ASA collaborated with Kurdish, Yezidi and human rights organizations to release a joint statement, and a petition in response to the current crisis. The petition has since received over 600 signatures.

On November 13, the AYF was on-air live with KPFK 90.7FM’s ‘Middle East in Focus’ discussing the issue and the emerging alignment of local community organizations against Turkish fascism.