Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş said in a meeting in Vienna on Thursday that Kurds have no choice but to claim self-rule in Turkey's southeastern provinces. Demirtaş said: "Our candidates received 100 percent [of the vote]. Now I am saying to you, what can Kurds do but want self-rule?" adding that a governor as an appointed official is "unnecessary." He also called people in Turkey's west to rise up against the status quo with "Gezi and Kobani spirit" over deadly events in the east. "Everyone should tell the government with Gezi spirit that they cannot do this one more time, and should be able to say so," describing it as "the only way to salvation."Prior to that, speaking to Fırat News Agency on Monday, he indicated the self-rule claims are the declaration of political will and the HDP respects it. "There is nothing more legitimate than the nation's self-rule. It is also part of our party's program: If we come to power, or proceed [with] a negotiation with a ruling party, we suggest autonomy as a political model officially," he said.Mayors of several provinces in eastern Turkey, including Van, Şırnak, Mardin, Batman, Hakkari, Muş and Diyarbakır, have allegedly claimed self-rule in the last two weeks. Sur Co-Mayor Seyid Narin and Silvan Co-Mayor Yüksel Bodakçı in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır have been taken into custody over alleged claims of autonomy while co-mayor of the Edremit district of southeastern Van province, Sevil Rojbin Çetin, was taken into custody on the same charges after the Van Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the self-rule claim.Two co-mayors of the province of Hakkari, Dilek Hatipoğlu and Nurullah Çiftçi, were also arrested due to the same claims of self-rule. Both other party members and their fellow members from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), which is the HDP's regional affiliate, have made striking remarks on the issue as well.On Aug. 20, DBP Co-Chair Emine Ayna indicated that they are striving via armed struggle and said: "When we carried out our work, we said that we were not going to work in accordance with Ankara, but with our people, and we were elected." Again, a co-mayor of Diyarbakır, Gültan Kışanak from the DBP has advocated self-rule claims as legitimate, saying: "If the state detains my district mayor, then I also promulgate self-rule. The self-rule demand of these people is a political demand." During the Kobani incidents on Oct.6-7, 2014, after the HDP's call, PKK supporter's poured into the streets in several southeastern provinces, alleging that the government had a hesitant stance in supporting the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which was attacking Kobani. The incidents, full of violence and vandalism in which pro- and anti-PKK groups clashed, caused more than 50 deaths and many buildings in 35 different cities were destroyed.