In the article of German Die Zeit, there are several factual mistakes.

The hypocrisy of the international community has recently been on full display in the case of the arrest of former co-chair of the Pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtaş. While other nations are free to defend their constitutional norms with their own laws and actions as they see fit, Turkey is per usual held to an entirely different standard. Western publications like Die Zeit have decried his detention and trial as arbitrary or unfair, an act against civil rights or against the normal process of the rule of law. The reason Die Zeit chooses to write this piece is not because they have found substantial evidence in favor of an oppressed minority but because the Western nations chose a terrorist organization to be their proxy in a Middle Eastern conflict, instead of being invested enough in the outcome to send their own troops to complete the mission. Now they must act in concert with these militants, else they shatter the alliance and cannot call on their services again in the future should the need arise. If other nations are free to defend their own interests and promote their own needs, why should the action of the Turkish state be any different, especially when those actions are to defend life and protect property from violence and destruction?

Selahattin Demirtaş has been documented to be a part of the PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, which has been waging an insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984 resulting in the death of more than 60.000 people. Shockingly, even the European Court of Human Rights has weighed in to ask for his release from detention. While normally we might say the goalposts have been moved, in this case the goalposts have been turned entirely upside down. Take for example, a very famous and recent incident we're all now quite familiar with.German publication Die Zeit went on to claim “The HDP could have been the solution to solving the kidnapping and eventual murder of 13 kidnapped Turkish citizens by the PKK. HDP politicians offered to intermediate numerous times and the families of the hostages consulted the HDP.” This statement could not be further from the truth. The families of the hostages did not consult the HDP, they organized a sit-in-protest in front of HDP headquarters, where they were not even offered basic help or sympathy from the HDP. They are called “Diyarbakır anneleri” (Mothers of Diyarbakır) and their sit-in-protest currently continues because their kidnapped children still haven't been returned.When Turkish citizens were taken hostage by the PKK, a lawmaker for the HDP contacted the terror group and said: “They’ll be [the PKK’s] guests for a while, then released.” However, they were executed by the PKK while HDP was trying to make the incident look innocent. The recently executed 13 hostages of the PKK could have been saved if the HDP were seeking peace and brotherhood like that which is claimed by publications like Die Zeit.

Furthermore, take for example another event taken from the recent pages of history. Just over one month ago, former US President Donald Trump, along with various members of his inner circle including his personal attorney and close advisor Rudy Giuliani, and even Trump's own sons, gave speeches in the streets of Washington DC during the counting of the electoral college votes in the US capitol to determine who would be the next US President. Giuliani incited the crowd to violence, asking for the decision not to be determined by the counting of votes, but by a “trial by combat” as he put it. Donald Trump Jr. admonished the crowd to action, saying “You can be a hero, or you can be a zero. The choice is yours. The whole world is watching. Choose wisely.” Former President Trump himself said “we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue”, followed by “we're going to the Capitol” and “We fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight, you're not going to have a country anymore.” He finishes by eluding to future actions, saying “Our boldest endeavors have not yet begun.”

Soon thereafter, the results of this incitement came to pass. Thousands of rioters, many wearing shirts and carrying banners with anti-Semitic, white supremacist, and insurrectionist themes and slogans, marched to the US Capitol complex, overran the defenses around its perimeter and stormed inside, disrupting the democratic vote count taking place and sending Congresspersons fleeing for their safety. A great deal of property damage was done, and 5 people lost their lives during the course of these events. As bad as that may seem, at many points during these events it was literally moments and steps away from becoming much, much worse. We now know many unarmed members of Congress were hidden just steps away from violent, armed insurrectionists. Had this knowledge been known to them, it can easily be imagined how tragic this day might truly have become.

Swiftly and rightly, media outlets around the globe condemned this violent assault, and laid the blame squarely at the feet of Trump and his associates for inciting these people to action and violence. Not just on this day, but in many days preceding, Trump's calls to violence, his opposition to democratic processes, and his rejection of the will of the people had driven many into a panicked fervor. His conspiracy theories spread far and wide over social media had led them to believe falsehoods which led them to his street protest on this day in the first place. Every social media giant removed his content from their websites in various ways as a reaction to this incitement, some deleting his accounts entirely, others banning him for an indefinite period of time. The US House of Representatives impeached him, for the second time during his presidency, and the US Senate held a vote on whether or not to convict him on charges of incitement and insurrection against the nation and its government. Pundits and politicians alike in the United States still advocate for his arrest, as well as those of his associates, and criminal charges to be brought. Hundreds of those who participated in the riot already face federal charges.

And yet when nearly this exact same scenario, only a more violent one played out in Turkey in 2014, instigated and incited by the illegal terrorist PYD and PKK elements within Turkey, resulting in a nearly identical response from the Turkish government against those who disturbed the peace, created chaos in the streets, and incited violence which harmed innocent civilians and law enforcement personnel alike, an entirely different reaction has been witnessed. When the HDP Headquarters, the official mouthpiece for Selahattin Demirtaş, states “We are trying to support our people to go out into the streets... Let's join the historical resistance altogether” right before violent protests on October 6-8 where at least 46 people lost their lives, how are they acting any differently than did the rioters in Washington? Should their action be considered the same as it obviously is and should the consequences for that action be any different? The only difference is, in the PKK/YPG led riots, 46 people died and 682 people were wounded. Selahattin Demirtaş and the party he was leading, the HDP had specifically called for these riots to start on 6thOctober in Turkey and are the perpetrators of these killings and the wounding of hundreds of people. When the ECHR and the Western media are supporting and defending these groups, they are in fact cheering for the perpetrators.

The United States, the supposed great beacon of democracy, has waged a War on Terror for almost 20 years since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 against the terrorist elements which attacked the nation and its people, resulting in the unfortunate deaths of over 3000. Yet these outlawed Kurdish groups and their affiliates have violently killed over 60,000 Turkish civilians, not in a single day but instead spreading this terror and violence over the term of decades against the Turkish people and their government which seeks to defend them, and the international community finds this acceptable, and at times even endeavors to support them? These positions would be laughable, if they weren't so widely accepted and so terribly damaging, both to the causes of democracy and peace, but also to the Turkish citizens who have felt the pain from the loss of loved ones as a result of this violence firsthand.

Therefore, it must be noted that Selahattin Demirtaş is not imprisoned and was not put on trial without just cause. He, along with HDP co-founder Figen Yüksekdağ, formed this “political party” as a new wing of already-present and outlawed violent Kurdish elements in order to legitimize and whitewash their crimes amid what was once significant international condemnation. How the members of the international community are so easily fooled now, one can only wonder. Neither the actions of the Kurdish factions nor the reaction of the Turkish state has differed at all at any point from then until now. Is it because Demirtaş does not paint his face and wear a horned helmet and the skins of animals wrapped around his neck, as is the norm for the QAnon Shaman who was made famous during the US capitol riots, during his own media appearances, which he seems to be so beloved?

The PKK/YPG is no different than groups such as the FARC in Columbia or the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, other famous militant groups from recent history who formed a supposed political party to cover for and advance their violent aims to sew terror and overthrow their state government through illegal means. These groups have one thing in common especially, in that they seek to do with rifles and bombs, what they cannot do at the ballot box. They have no popular support nor mandate to act, but instead of resting their case like civilized people would, they resort to extremism and death as a means to get illegally what they cannot gain legitimately. And just like those failed and defeated groups, the PKK/PYD elements in Turkey will be destroyed as well, through the strength of the nation's security forces combined with the support and unshakable will of the people. The HDP must be seen for what it truly is, no matter how elegantly its members now dress. A wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf. And if the international community were truly interested in the values they proclaim to be, they would support the Turkish state as it seeks to protect its flock from further attacks, and punish those who committed previous ones.