This footage was filmed and produced 18 March 2021.
People shout slogans during a demonstration to protest against the court case launched for closure of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Istanbul

HDP Kocaeli MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for "sharing a newspaper article", was dismissed as a deputy. The Supreme Court Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued an indictment demanding the dissolution of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). In the indictment, it was stated that HDP is equivalent to the PKK. Many of the HDP's criticisms were criminalized. 687 HDP members were asked to be banned from doing politics. Many democratic mass organizations in Istanbul protested the removal of Gergerlioğlu's parliamentary membership and the HDP's demand to be shut down.

Speaking at the action, HDP Istanbul Provincial Co-Chair Erdal Avcı said, "With the attempt to close the HDP and the removal of Gergerlioğlu's parliamentary membership, it was declared what the Human Rights Action Plan actually was. Talking about reforms, the AKP committed its political suicide yesterday in the parliament. HDP, its constituents, Kurdish political parties, revolutionary socialist traditions can establish dozens of parties and build new ones. But if the AKP is shut down, they will not be able to build a new party, and they will not have faces to wander on the street. " said.