MESOP : No chance for Selehattin Demirtas in case of Christianophobia
With lawsuits dragging on for years inconclusively, the People’s Democracy Party (HDP), the Kurdish party that commands a large following in the region and to which Dora belongs, has stepped in to mediate between Syriac landowners and Kurdish claimants in several cases, including that of Mor Augin. But although the Kurdish tribe occupying monastery lands is aligned with the HDP and despite the personal interventions of HDP Chairman Selahattin Demirtas and of Ahmet Turk, a respected Kurdish feudal chief, negotiations proved fruitless and were eventually abandoned. “You have to remember that landownership is something for which Kurds kill each other, too,” Dora said, acknowledging that the party held little sway here.
Land Grab in Turkey’s Southeast Threatens Return of Minorities
By Susanne Gusten – AL Monitor – 5 Dec 2014