The pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) started Watch for Justice events as HDP lawmakers held their parliamentary group meeting yesterday at a park in southeastern Diyarbakır province to protest the arrest of HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş and former Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ.

Speaking to journalists at Ekin Ceren Park in Diyarbakır, HDP spokesman Osman Baydemir said his party's protests will continue across the country until Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ, as well as other imprisoned HDP lawmakers are released. "We are once again speaking openly and call on the conscience of the 80 million people from here to Turkey's west. Our watch for justice and conscience will continue as long as our co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, andlawmakers and mayors are in prison," Baydemir said.

Stressing that the HDP will not stop until the state of emergency is over in Turkey, Baydemir accused the Turkish state of following fascist policies.

The HDP's decision to be "on the watch for justice" across the country comes after Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu completed a 400-kilometer march from the capital, Ankara, to Istanbul on July 9, in the name of justice. The HDP lent support to Kılıçdaroğlu's march with HDP lawmakers marching alongside the CHP leader.

Some fear the HDP's Watch for Justice on the streets across Turkey may lead to undesired events, as in the past. Yasin Börü, Ahmet Dakak, Riyat Güneş and Hasan Gökguz were going door-to-door collecting donations for a charity on Oct. 7, 2014, the second day of nationwide riots perpetrated by supporters of the PKK terrorist group triggered by protest calls from Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ. A mob of PKK supporters cornered the four men in a house in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır. They were beaten and stabbed to death before their bodies were thrown from the windows of the apartment where they had taken refuge.

The government has long criticized the HDP for failing to distance itself from the PKK. Yüksekdağ drew heavy criticism for her alleged pro-PKK stance with her remarks in 2015. "We supporst the YPJ [Women's Protection Units], the YPG [People's Protection Units] and the PYD [Democratic Union Party], and we do not see any harm in mentioning and defending them," she said in July 2015.

Yüksekdağ also praised the PKK and described it as "a national liberation movement and also an organization that stands for democracy and equality."

Several HDP deputies, including party leaders Yüksekdağ and Demirtaş, were arrested last November on terrorism charges. The lawmakers began facing prosecution under anti-terrorism legislation after their parliamentary immunity was lifted in March 2016.