The network of women of the Party of the European Left, EL-FEM, gathered this weekend in Athens, and interrupted their work to join the demonstration, held in the Greek capital, with the aim of denouncing the detention of 11 MPs of HDP - Democratic Party of the People, which represents the vote of left-wing and pro-Kurd of Turkey.

The total number of women participating in the EL-FEM meeting, representing more than 12 parties of Europe, congregated with the EL flags in Syntagma Square to show their solidarity with the Turkish people and especially with the Kurds and left opposition.

The EL Vice-President, Maite Mola, was invited to speak and when she took the floor she recalled that she is the first foreign person with an order of search and capture by the Turkish government of the AKP, since more than a year and a half ago when she participated in a demonstration against a bill that cut off, among others, the right of demonstration. She explained that the day of that peaceful protest through the streets of Istanbul she gave a press conference with the arrested Chairman of HDP Selahattin Demirtas regarding the restriction of freedoms. The EL Vice-President denounced the “political purge, proper of a dictatorship” that tries to eliminate the opposition, which in this case is the third force in the Parliament with 59 members.

On behalf of the EL, Maite Mola called for the immediate release of the HDP co- presidents and the 11 MPs arrested on Thursday night. She also urged the European Union to take measures, both political and economic, against the regimen of Erdogan, which is using the state of emergency to block the opposition in a clear attack to the democracy and the peace.

The morning in which these detentions were known, the EL already issued a statement of condemnation in this same direction.

The purge and repression continues. On the following day of the detention of the MPs, they arrested 9 journalists of the opposing newspaper Cumhuriyet, one of the oldest and most prestigious of the country. Among the detainees is the director of the publication and its most outstanding journalists. Five days before, other 13 journalists from the same newspaper were arrested, accused of being terrorists. Since the attempt of coup in July, Erdogan has closed 170 critical media and has in prison 105 informants, critical of the Government. Other 2,500 have lost their jobs.