Journalist and writer Hasan Cemal is running for the Green Left Party (YSP) in Turkey's parliamentary elections in Istanbul's second district. He spoke to ANF about the importance of the 14 May elections.

"I would call these elections historic or fateful. We are at a critical juncture. In the last twenty years, Turkey has been badly governed and has become a country of crises. Now we have to rebuild this country of crises from scratch. We can do that with a democratic republic," said the 79-year-old, who gave up his journalistic work after half a century to run for a seat in Turkey's National Assembly.

‘THERE IS A ROTTEN AND COLLAPSED ORDER THAT WE NEED TO CHANGE’

Cemal continued: "We need to put the existing problems and especially the Kurdish question on the path of solution. We need an amnesty. Political prisoners must be released. It is necessary to release the imprisoned journalists. We need to restore rights, the legal system, justice and peace in Turkey. Turkey needs to be rebuilt with all this. What Turkey needs is to create a spirit of reconciliation under the umbrella of the parliament and to tackle the problems with this spirit. To this day, it has been treated as if there were enemies rather than rivals in the political arena. Turkey has been polarised. Nothing has been done in this atmosphere and it has worsened, especially because of the one-man regime. There is a rotten and collapsed order that we need to change, but the first step is to bury the one-man regime in history. If Turkey fails to vote out the one-man regime, much worse things will happen."

‘THE GREEN LEFT PARTY MUST ENTER THE PARLIAMENT STRONGLY’

Cemal pointed out the importance of a strong entry of the Green Left Party into parliament and the culture of compromise: "A strong Green Left parliamentary group would facilitate and speed up a solution to the Kurdish question in parliament. But we must pay attention to one point here; for years, an enemy mentality has ruled politics in Turkey. One side has seen the other side as an enemy and not as a rival. We must eradicate this mentality once and for all. The political game should be seen as a fight between rivals and not between enemies. Politics in Turkey must adopt this spirit of reconciliation. Since we have not been able to do that so far, we have always fought, and that has led Turkey to a dead end. Let us find points of compromise by saying: 'Come on, brother, let's sit down, let's talk, let's build dialogues, there are points where you are right, there are points where I am right, you take a step back somewhere and I take a step back somewhere'. That way, we can solve even the most difficult problems in time. Let us enforce this mentality. It must not be in politics that we fight each other like enemies. What we need most in the coming period is a spirit of reconciliation. We cannot go any other way. One may say: ‘I am right to the end', the other may say: 'You are not right here'. We must talk to each other and untie the knots one by one. This is a question of knowledge, patience and leadership. People dealing with this issue should also have a good understanding of the past."

DIALOGUE ON A SOLUTION TO THE KURDISH QUESTION

Remarking that the Kurdish question could be solved at the negotiation table, Hasan Cemal stated: "First of all, the solution to the Kurdish question should be brought under the roof of the parliament. It is necessary to approach this issue with all the subtleties of compromise, dialogue and negotiation by spreading the solution to the problem over a longer period of time, without haste, without confusing priorities and focal points. The past has shown that this is not easy. However, we must be able to achieve it. It is clear that Turkey's fundamental problems, from the economy to the legal system to the judiciary, cannot be solved without solving the Kurdish question.”

The YPS candidate concluded: “In solution processes there are interlocutors and it is necessary to keep an eye on these interlocutors and to open channels of dialogue. It is necessary to be extremely careful when opening such channels, to learn from past experiences and not to rush into anything. We should start with what is easy and stretch it over time. This is feasible. We have learned from the past. All actors in the political arena see the need for this approach. It is seen that nothing will happen in Turkey if the Kurdish question is not solved."