The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) co-chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan visited Fatih Erbakan, chairman of the Yeniden Refah Partisi (New Welfare Party, YRP). A joint press conference was held after the visit on Thursday.

Tülay Hatimoğulları said that the developments in Turkey and the region were discussed during the meeting and denounced the usurpation of municipalities by the government.

Hatimoğulları said, “There is a law proposal against the trustee politics, agreed upon by all political parties in the parliament except the ruling party and its partner. We would like to appeal to the 600 deputies in the parliament; no matter which party you belong to, we demand that you support this law proposal in order to keep democracy alive.”

Hatimoğulları said that the latest discussions on the Kurdish question were also discussed at the meeting and added: “We discussed the steps that could be taken. We hope that we can manage to evolve these new discussions towards social peace together.”

Erbakan also spoke out against the usurpation of municipalities and said that they agreed with the DEM Party on this issue, “As Yeniden Refah Party, we have always expressed that we are ready to secure the rights of our Kurdish brothers and sisters in the Southeast and Eastern Anatolia and to answer their demands.”