(HORIZON WEEKLY) Montreal June 21 2017 \u2013 Dr. Hisyar Ozsoy, a Kurdish member of parliament in Turkey with the pro-minority and pro-women Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (HDP), expects to be arrested next week upon his return to Turkey after a month long trip in Canada and the United States. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am determined to return to Turkey to stand up for those who elected me. I am not afraid. That is the reality of politics and life today under the Erdogan regime,\u201d Dr. Ozsoy told a meeting at the Armenian Cultural Centre in Montr\u00e9al just last week. Dr. Oszoy, who is also a US citizen, is the Vice Co-Chair and the Foreign Affairs Spokesperson of the HDP.<\/p>\n
Unanimous motion passed in the National Assembly of Quebec denouncing arbitrary arrests in Turkey<\/strong><\/p>\n During his trip to Canada, Dr. Ozsoy was invited to visit the National Assembly in Quebec City, where a ground breaking unanimous motion was passed in solidarity with imprisoned citizens, journalists and HDP parliamentarians and mayors in Turkey. There are currently eleven members of the Turkish parliament and 86 mayors (most of whom are Kurdish) who are still detained among a total of 108 000 people who have been detained in Turkey since July 2016.<\/p>\n The motion, which is the first to be passed by a legislative assembly in Canada, was appreciated by Dr. Ozsoy: \u201cI thank the people of Quebec, through their elected officials, for sending a strong message of support to the people of Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n An attempt to pass a similar motion (which wasn\u2019t tabled) in the House of Commons in Ottawa was rejected by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau despite support from the Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Green Party.<\/p>\n Also, Monday June 19th 2017, the trial of the Co-Mayor of the major city of Diyarbak\u0131r, G\u00fcltan K\u0131\u015fanak, began in Turkey. She faces up to 230 years in prison. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have denounced her detention as contrary to human rights standards set forth in international treaties ratified by Turkey and cities like Madrid and Barcelona have formally expressed their solidarity with her situation in letters to the Turkish embassy in Spain.<\/p>\n