Zeynel Abidin Koç, President of the Federation of Alevi Associations, told ANF that political parties do not open enough space for the representation of various identities. He said: "Different identities can represent themselves in the Green Left Party without melting under one voice."

Koç said that they found the Alevi representation in the Parliament insufficient, that the parties remained weak in the representation of the Alevis at the institutional level, and that the representation was limited to having an "Alevi MP", but that was not enough.

"Although Alevi support is strong among their bases, Alevi institutions have not had identity representation in political parties until today. Take as an example Ali Kenanoğlu. He entered Parliament with the HDP as a representative of an institution. We find direct representation very important. Many associations and Alevis have a federation. Celal Fırat will be our representative, but all our federations must be present in the Parliament for the struggle for the rights of Alevis."

Full agreement on the name of Celal Firat

Zeynel Abidin Koç stated that Celal Fırat left the presidency of the Federation of Alevi Associations after he was nominated for the Green Left Party Istanbul 3rd constituency and added that he was unanimously selected as their candidate.

The Green Left Party has the richest base in terms of cultural diversity, said Koç, drawing attention to the importance of different belief groups, cultural and political structures being able to express and represent themselves without melting under the party identity. Koç said: "The Green Left Party is an alliance. It is trying to open up space for Yazidis, Alevis, Assyrians, every belief group and all segments of society. Different identities can represent themselves without melting under one voice. This is very important. The Green Left Party is a movement of different groups. As the Federation of Alevi Associations, we express and represent ourselves in this alliance."