DEM Party deputy Gergerlioğlu raises the case of Bogdan Syrotiuk in Turkish parliament

12 November 2026facebook iconDr. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Kocaeli deputy of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), has responded to the appeal by the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi—Dördüncü Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party—Fourth International) to defend the Ukrainian socialist political prisoner Bogdan Syrotiuk. On August 10, 2026, a court of the fascistic Ukrainian regime sentenced Bogdan to 15 years in prison on a fraudulent charge of “high treason.” He has been held since April 2024.

At a press conference in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) on November 6, 2026, Gergerlioğlu held up an image of Bogdan and raised the case. He then wrote on X:

15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR ANTI-WAR BOGDAN SYROTIUK! WE ARE BRINGING THE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN TO PUBLIC ATTENTION!

The anti-war socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk has been given a 15-year prison sentence in Ukraine. Because he opposes the war, he has been handed a heavy sentence for high treason under martial law.

His friends in Türkiye are also waging a campaign on his behalf. Let us raise this issue from here as well.

The campaign is apparently being conducted by the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi in Türkiye. Its chairman, Ulaş Sevinç, is bringing the issue before the public in Türkiye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksYXcj4YJws

Gergerlioğlu, who is also a medical doctor and journalist, is known in parliament above all for closely following and exposing human rights violations in Türkiye’s prisons. He was also among the signatories of the global petition launched after Bogdan Syrotiuk’s arrest in 2024.

In 2018, Gergerlioğlu—a human rights activist and later a deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)—was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for bogus “terrorist propaganda” over a news report he had shared on social media in 2016. In March 2021, he was stripped of his parliamentary seat and sent to prison. He was released and reinstated as a deputy after the Constitutional Court ruled in July 2021 that his rights had been violated. The WSWS and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) opposed this state repression, without concealing their political differences with the HDP and the Kurdish movement.

After Bogdan’s sentencing on August 10, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi took a number of initiatives in Türkiye. These were part of the ICFI’s intensified global campaign for the unconditional overturning of the verdict and the release of Bogdan. Letters went in particular to political parties and media outlets that describe themselves as democratic, left-wing or socialist. The letters called on them to defend Bogdan in this important international case, in which basic democratic rights are at stake. Gergerlioğlu was among the many deputies who received the letter. In it, Ulaş Sevinç wrote:

On August 10, a court in the Mykolaiv region sentenced Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist, to 15 years in prison for “high treason under martial law.” The only evidence against Syrotiuk, the leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), consists of six articles he published on the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) and his correspondence with its editors. The case file contains no espionage, no sabotage and no collaboration with any military force. The verdict also orders the seizure of his property and electronic devices and the destruction of the socialist books, leaflets and programmatic documents in his possession.

Since his arrest in April 2024, not a shred of evidence has been produced to substantiate the state’s claim that he is a “Russian agent.” On the contrary, the articles in question openly set out Syrotiuk’s opposition to the Russian invasion and to the Putin regime. …

The International Committee of the Fourth International, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi and the World Socialist Web Site call on workers, trade unions, student and youth organizations, human rights organizations, and socialist and anti-war movements around the world to take up Bogdan’s case. To this end, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi calls on you to hold a joint press conference on the case in Istanbul or Ankara, to protest the verdict publicly and to support the international campaign for Bogdan’s release.

Editor, WSWS Turkish edition & Chairman, Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi

What is the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists and what role does this youth organization play within the Fourth International's work in Ukraine?How does the prosecution of a socialist for antiwar writings in Ukraine today compare historically to the way Stalinism suppressed Trotskyists in that same region?Ask more questions at SocialismAI.comThe DEM Party holds the third-largest group in parliament. Gergerlioğlu’s raising of the case in the Turkish parliament is part of a wave of international support for Bogdan’s release that has been building since August 10. Numerous organizations around the world that do not share Bogdan’s socialist convictions, such as Unsubmissive France (LFI) and the Stop the War Coalition in Britain, have issued statements demanding his release.

In Türkiye, the 15-year sentence against Bogdan has been reported in the Evrensel Daily, which is aligned with the Labour Party (EMEP) and is represented in parliament. It has also been reported by the ETHA news agency, aligned with the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP); by marksist.org, aligned with the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (DSİP), the Turkish affiliate of the International Socialist Tendency (IST); on the websites of the magazine Enternasyonal Dayanışma (International Solidarity); the Socialist Laborers Party (SEP in Turkish acronym); the Socialist Party of Türkiye (TSP); and by other media outlets.

Bogdan’s lawyers appealed the sentence to the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal on September 9. The fight to defend Bogdan is inseparable from the fight to stop imperialist war and defend democratic rights. Bogdan’s freedom and the success of this broader struggle depend on mobilizing the international working class on the basis of a socialist perspective. We call on workers, young people and defenders of democratic rights to sign the petition of the international campaign for Bogdan’s freedom and to spread the word about this critical case.