AMED TIMES - A group protesting against Israel in front of Burger King in the Sur district and Starbucks in the Kayapınar district of Diyarbakır on the evening of 22 June caused controversy in the city. HÜDA PAR commented on the issue to Amed Times.
The chairman of HÜDA PAR Diyarbakır, Zeynul Abidin Gülsever, made the following statements to Amed Times:
“We want our people to boycott”
Gülsever emphasised that HÜDA PAR supports Hamas on every platform and participates in the weekly protest demonstrations: “We participate from all provinces of Turkey and will continue to do so. We also urge the government to stop the supply of goods to Israel. Our 4 MPs in parliament keep putting this issue on the agenda.”
Gülsever explained that they organise boycott programmes within the party: “We raise public awareness against boycott products and support those who boycott.”
“They are trying to involve us”
Regarding the protests at McDonald's and Starbucks, Gülsever said: “They are trying to involve us; whenever there is something negative, HÜDA PAR is immediately blamed. We have nothing to do with these incidents," and continued with the following statements:
“Did the protesters storm in and vandalise something? When the young people come to the party, we tell them to express their democratic reactions. Such actions are common in Europe. There, Europeans show democratic reactions against companies like McDonald's and Starbucks, which openly support Zionism with their blood, money and lives by putting mice inside and spilling their coffee."
If you break something, that's considered a democratic right, but not for these youths?
Gülsever continued his statement as follows: “They broke an ATM here, and again people from this community have said that they are expressing their democratic reactions. Or in the 6-8 incidents when the lives and property of merchants were looted, did anyone take to the streets and say let's support and protest these merchant brothers whose businesses were damaged? Today, against Zionism, all Muslims could do nothing. Since the government has not opened this avenue, I blame both sides.
These youths also went and protested with the right given to them to channelise their energy. But it was as if these youths did the worst thing in the world, as if they destroyed the place, a few pictures were taken. When the youths entered, a few people there got scared and ran away. Those who entered could have held a sit-in protest. They were invoking democratic rights. If you break in and smash it up, that's considered a democratic right, but it's not for these young people? Such hypocrisy should not be made. Whoever is wronged, we are there, we are against injustice and we are against violence, no matter who it is."
That is hypocrisy
Gülsever described those who labelled the protest as an attack as hypocritical: “We do not support any act of violence. Everyone can express their opinion within the law. None of these are crimes; we found in our investigations after the incident that not even a glass was spilt or broken. I have also read the nonsensical statements. This is called a protest, not an attack. Breaking an ATM is called a democratic right, burning and looting shops is called a democratic reaction, but when someone enters a shop and shouts slogans to express their reaction, you call it an attack. That is hypocrisy.”
While the Diyarbakır Bar Association responded to the protests, the Diyarbakır Business Council, which includes many business organisations such as the Diyarbakır Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Industrialists and Businessmen Associations of East and Southeast Anatolia, condemned the protest in a written statement titled “We will not tolerate those who try to undermine the peace and tranquilly of our city” .