HDP Amed candidate Dersim Dağ said, “As the youth, we are striving to take back our role that was stolen from us and to fulfill the requirements of this role with sacrifice.”

HDP Amed candidate Dersim Dağ pointed out that the collapsing government will easily push society into any kind of risk to avoid losing their seats of power, and invited all young people to the HDP with the awareness that all societal groups have been pushed to the edge of the cliff.

HDP shows once again with the candidate profiles in this election cycle that it is a party that belongs to women and the youth. HDP members campaigning on every street place stress on this fact. HDP Amed candidate for the 9th spot Dersim Dağ is one of the youngest female candidates. Dağ, just 22, spoke to the ANF and answered questions.

You are one of the young candidates in the HDP. What is the significance of large scale participation by the youth?

HDP is a party for all the groups within Turkey’s society. In this sense, of course it is important for the youth to participate at a large scale. Under current circumstances, all young people should be involved in politics somehow. This is necessary for us to develop as a society. There can be no development in a political medium without youth involvement.

How does the HDP speak to women and the youth?

HDP is the party of youth and women already. Women and the youth are constituent subjects in our party. All party policies, the program, all strategies and tactics have to be sex- and gender-aware.  HDP is a young party that has to pose an answer to current sociopolitical and economic issues within a democratic framework.

Do you think young candidates can be a serious opposition force?

Right now, who is out there as an opposition against government policies, outside of political parties, both in Turkey and in Kurdistan? Kurdish youth, muslim youth, secular youth and socialist youth. The subjects in the Gezi resistance are the youth. The subjects and the people who maintain urban resistances are the youth. The youth is the secret founders and sustainers of politics in these lands. What we want to do for the peoples of Turkey is to take back the role stolen from us as the youth, and to fulfill the requirements of that role with sacrifice.

What is your background in political struggle, and does the process frighten you?

Actually I would like to make it a principle to not answer individual questions. Because both my candidacy and my presence in this party is due to sociological reasons. If you mean an activism at the level of political parties, yes, but as a member of a youth who has been subjected to forced displacement, who has been othered in the big cities they migrated to in every way imaginable from skin color to clothing, who has been constantly depoliticized, having such a series of experiences means having a political past “naturally”, I think.

My mother always said, “fearing the process is cowardice, and not fearing it is stupidity”. I agree. The collapsing government will easily push society into any kind of risk to avoid losing their seats of power. My fear is not so much individual reasons, but that as a society, we have all been pushed to the edge of the cliff. This is a conscious responsibility of being on the edge of the cliff.

The youth is attempted to be depoliticized through subverted agendas, We are aware of that. 

What is the first thing you want to fix first when you join the parliament?

The first thing would be the lifting of the State of Emergency and the cancellation of the Statutory Decrees. Because the heaviest burdens on politics and society are the State of Emergency and the Statutory Decrees.

What is your call for voters, starting with young people?

I am aware that young people, including me, being nominated in these elections has created excitement in society. I advise all young people who have a wide vision, who improve themselves and can improve society to participate in politics in some fashion. I invite all who want to achieve women’s rights, resolve youth’s issues and solve the problem with justice in the country to unite under the HDP umbrella.