Bakurê (Northern) Kurdistan and Turkey are going to the ballots tomorrow for the parliamentary and presidential elections. One of the parties in the race, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi - HDP) has Selahattin Demirtaş as their presidential candidate.

A citizen named Simo Yusif said, “As Êzidî citizens from Shengal, we are calling on the Êzidîs who live in Turkey to vote for the HDP. Support the HDP to be rid of the Erdoğan government. We all know that we will be facing new firmans (decree of genocide) if Erdoğan succeeds. Erdoğan threatens to strike Shengal almost every day. So we must vote for ourselves. We must vote for the HDP and Demirtaş and defeat the Turkish state’s dirty plans.”

Simo Yusif continued to call a success for Erdoğan a “firman”: “Erdoğan’s win would mean the coming of the 74th firman for the Êzidî people. The whole world knows that the Turkish state is also behind the massares we suffered. The Kurdish people must know that the Turkish state wants us to fracture and turn away from each other. The Turkish state now wants to invade Bashur’s lands. O we are hoping everybody will vote for their own will. We are calling on all our people starting with the Êzidîs to vote for the HDP and Demirtaş to prevent firmans.”

Another citizen from Shengal, Nasir Hesen, called on Êzidîs to vote for HDP and Demirtaş and said: “To end this fascist government, vote for the HDP. Our people in Bakur and Turkey starting with the Êzidîs must go to the ballots on June 24 to respond to the massacres committed against our people by the Turkish state.”