The closure case launched last year against the HDP continues. Most recently, the Constitutional Court added the evidence used in the DEP closure case to the HDP closure case file. Mahfuz Güleryüz from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was interviewed by ANF.

Prosecutors used evidence from the closure case against the DEP in 1994. What do you think about this? Can't they find evidence against the HDP?

In fact, party closures were almost banned by the reforms during the AKP period. It is not possible to legally close a party. The AKP knows this very well. This case is not legal, they have nothing to present as evidence of closure. This case is a political case. The evidence in the case is political arguments. If this case results in closure, democratic politics in Turkey will become impossible, which will hit everyone like a boomerang.

The general elections will be held within 8 months. What will be the effect of the final decision in the closure case on the elections?

The 'peace process' is on trial. Its legal and political consequences will be severe. All our friends who are tried in the case were actors of the peace process together with state officials at that time. All the officials of the state, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of Interior, and the President, were engaged in this process. The peace process is used as evidence for the closure case. This case concerns not only the HDP, but also the political and military bureaucracy involved in these activities at that time. The AKP’s ally, the MHP, seeks to remove the HDP tradition, philosophy and politics from the political sphere. The MHP puts pressure on the AKP to close the HDP. However, according to democratic norms and political realities, the HDP should not be closed. We live through an uncertain process.

Do you think there will be a decision not to close the HDP?

The AKP is always making plans. They are making calculations about what this case will bring to them. If they think that they could take advantage of the closure, they will most likely close the HDP. If not, it is less likely to close the party.

What kind of a roadmap do you have in mind, should the party be closed?

We say from the beginning that this process is not a legal process. We will make our defence not in courtrooms, but in the streets with our people. The government could close our party, but this idea, this spirit, this philosophy will prevail. We will do this with or without the HDP. We have completed all our preparations for every possibility. If there is an election very soon, peoples of the country are not without alternatives. Citizens, the Kurds, the Alevis, sincere Muslims, women, ecologists, will not be left at the mercy of the AKP.

Along with the closure case, the crackdown and arrests against your party continue. Considering both that and the closure case, what is the AKP-MHP government trying to do?

Their aim is to stifle the democratic channels. They seek to silence the Turkish opposition. That's why they attack the HDP. Our party is the only organized force that opposes the policies of the AKP-MHP fascism. The HDP is the only political structure that addresses and offers solutions to the Kurdish issue which Turkey has not been able to resolve for a century. The 'one-man' regime pursues these oppressive policies not only against the Kurds and the Alevis, but also against all segments of the society. They consider the HDP as the focal point of all these objections.