The HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) held a rally in Hakkari on Saturday which was joined by thousands of people.

A large crowd gathered at Selahattin Eyyubi Airport in Gever to meet HDP co-chair, Pervin Buldan.

The HDP convoy was greeted enthusiastically along the road to the city centre. Likewise, police made the convoy to stop quite a few times and made people wait for hours under the excuse of having to check identity cards.

The enthusiasm of tens of thousands of people waiting at the rally area, though, wiped out the memory of the long hours spent at the police checkpoints.

The rally was also attended by a number of executives, including politician Hamit Geylani, Women's Council Spokeswoman Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, Hakkari deputy Nihat Akdoğan, and the HDP candidates Özgür Zeydanoğlu and Sait Dede.

HDP deputies: on 24 June will get rid of the AKP

Özgür Zeydanoğlu, HDP candidate for Hakkari, was the first to speak. “This enthusiasm comes from the mountains. This is what we will show on 24 June. We are already victorious”.

Zeydanoğlu said that, as party, they would protect the ballots.

HDP candidate Sait Dede said: “I found here the same enthusiasm we saw on 7 June. We come from Suruç to Hakkari, to bring them to account. Their only goal is to leave the HDP under the threshold. We won’t allow that to happen”.

Dilek Adsan from Democratic Society Congress conveyed the greetings of HDP Hakkari candidate Leyla Güven. Adsan said: “It is time for them to go" and added that on 24 June “we will all go together to free Leyla Güven from prison”.

Nihat Akdoğan said that the 16 years of AKP government did not bring anything other than death, arrest and prison. “24 June is the time to ask for the bill”.

Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, the HDP Women's Parliamentary Speaker and Ağrı deputy candidate, said that the purpose of the power is to make sure HDP is not taken into the mouths again, saying: "Now we see that their targets are buried in this square. We saw their provocation in Ceylanpınar and our people should be careful about such provocations."

Call for unity of Kurds

Hamit Geylani ended the rally and said: "The unity of the Kurds is now an inevitable issue. We have to watch out as wherever there is a Kurdish victory, Kurds are under attack... This election should be a new beginning ... Kurds have been slaughtered throughout history. We have resisted in the past we will resist now, because this land is the land of Ehmede Xanî and Feqiyê Teyran”.