Speaking to ANF, HDP Gever (Yüksekova) District co-chair Şoreş Diri said that they are working as if there will be an election tomorrow. “We are carrying out ballot-based election work. Our friends have been working with 260 ballot boxes in our district for about two months. We continue our work in such a way that we have at least two colleagues in each ballot box. We're 80% done. We take the issue of ballot box security seriously, and we will protect our votes in every way. We especially expect young people to come to the district building and register to protect the ballot boxes.”

Stating that there are a total of 77,000 voters in Gever, Diri continued as follows: “The majority of this electorate is in the centre, but there is also an important electorate in approximately 100 villages and hamlets connected to these villages. Although the weather conditions are bad, these days we are walking around the neighbourhoods canvassing from house to house. We take care not to leave any of our compatriots behind. And now we also use social media.”

Our people are standing still

Pointing out that the Hakkari Governorate has arbitrarily banned all kinds of actions and activities organized by Kurds for about 7 years, Diri said: “They are trying to prevent almost all our activities throughout the province. Despite all the pressures and policies of intimidation, our people is standing still. Our honorable people support their party. Our people know well the heavy isolation policies that have been going on for 22 months in Imralı, the state of deep poverty that is common among our people, unemployment rates and corruption caused by some local people and rotten institutions that have turned into a useful apparatus of the government, the prevalence of drug sales by those working in official institutions. On the other hand, the closure case against our party, the Kobanê trial, and finally the raids on the DBP, strengthen us and our bond us all together even more.”

Stressing that the government, which thinks that they will get results through these conspiracy trials, femicides, massacres of nature, this policy of open intolerance and isolation against the Kurds and the Kurdish language, will be deeply disappointed in the 2023 elections, Diri said: “We have no doubt about it. As the people of Hakkari, we will leave the AKP-MHP alliance below the threshold in Hakkari in the 2023 elections. Our goal is to send all three of our candidates to the Parliament with the highest vote rate. We are making all our preparations for these elections according to the lessons and results we have learned from the 2018 elections.”