Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtas organised a press conference in Istanbul yesterday to provide information about the process of local congresses and the building of local branches of the party that has now been completed. The meeting of the co-chairs saw huge participation, turning it into the start of the campaign for the general elections scheduled for June 2015.

The HDP has recently pursued a process of building party branches, under the slogan: “We organise freedom for a new life” in many Turkish cities where previously it was not organised. The co-chairs of the party introduced the new organisation of the party and commented on the recent political developments as well the HDP’s strategy in the upcoming elections.

The press conference, held in the Şişli Cultural Centre in Istanbul, was attended by the executives of HDP and HDK as well those of the component parties and organisations under HDP. The conference saloon was colourfully decorated while banners which read “Democratic Republic, common country, democratic nation”, “Towards a democratic nation with free women”, “Social security, trade union and strike are the rights of every worker”, were hung on the walls. The meeting started with a cinevision show about the work of the HDP.

Speaking first at the meeting, HDP co-chair Figen Yuksekdag recalled that they had also organised a meeting at the same venue during the presidential election campaign and said: “Today, we are meeting once again to make a new start by uniting our hearts and power”.

Yüksekdağ stressed that the HDP had reached a new stage in its march together with the peoples and said: “Not only our party, all the oppressed and all the peoples are at a turning point extending from the past to the future. We completed the local branch congresses under the slogan ‘We organise freedom’. As a matter of fact we are organising a new life”.

Yüksekdağ stressed that the will and need of the peoples of Turkey for a change is very strong and said that the present government failed to produce solutions for the compelling problems. Yüksekdağ added that the government’s priority has always been strengthening its own dominance, adding; “In the face of all the freedom demands of the people, the monist mentality imposes itself in order to ensure its continuation”.

Recalling the attacks of ISIS in the Middle East backed by the imperialist powers, Yuksekdağ said that against the darkness of the imperialist powers with ISIS in its centre, a light based on the self-power of the people themselves is revealing itself. “We see this light in Rojava. The canton of Rojava, now defended in Kobane, prove the hope and the will of the peoples of the region to live freely and together. The seeds of the new life have been planted in Rojava and we are voyagers on this new route for a new life opened there”, added Yüksekdağ.

Yüksekdağ said the HDP is the only power that can achieve a change, stressing that the power of the change will come from the struggle of the people. Yüksekdağ said: “It is perfectly possible to turn this restructuring movement into the movement for the restructuring of Turkey", calling on all the peoples of Turkey to join the struggle and the journey to freedom.”

Speaking after, the other co-chair of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş, said now that the party feels ready for a new life today, it means that the people are already ready for it, adding that this has been the message given to them by the people in the presidential elections.

Demirtaş said: “It is not the government or the parliament that is ruling the country,” and pointed to President Erdoğan who -he said- considered  himself to have the authority  to decide alone on the important issues of the country.”

Demirtaş stressed that the alternative that would prevent the country from falling into the hands of a more despotic regime is the HDP,  adding: “The oppressed, the poor, Kurds, Armenians, Syriacs, women, youth have never before been included in the administration. The people are represented in parliament, but we couldn’t build the rule of the people themselves. We can prove that this is possible by starting working for it today. We can start working for it right now after we leave this hall and prove that the democratic rule of the people is perfectly possible. We cannot leave the people in the bloody hands of a government sunk in corruption. We have the responsibility to free the people from this government for the alternative democratic rule of the people”.

Demirtaş also criticised strongly the new palace of Erdoğan and referred to the remarks of the new Turkish President that the disposition of women is not fit for being equal to men, adding: “You, the women, you have it in your disposition to destroy the palaces”.

Demirtaş went on, saying that the neoliberal policies of the government imposed on Yırca, Hasankeyf and the Black Sea region brought nothing but destruction, adding: “They call this destruction a model of development and present it to us as a plan of genius. But it is called neoliberal capitalism everywhere in the world. The HDP rule will have the power to change this mentality. We will develop projects that will enable people to lead their lives without a threat of displacement”.

Demirtaş pointed to the ecologically destructive projects of Erdoğan, like the canal project for İstanbul, or the 3rd bridge over the Bosporus, saying that the President wanted to turn Istanbul into the holy place of capitalism, adding that Erdoğan also insisted on constructing mosques to veil his guilt, even in Cuba.

Demirtaş said the next elections are of a critical importance, adding that they can enable the emergence of a new power capable of changing the balance of power in the Middle East. “We can spread the enthusiasm of the Rojava Revolution to the Aegean coast, to Thrace. We can spread the colourful look of this hall to the whole of Turkey”, he said.

Also addressing to the people who have voted for the AKP and the CHP until now, Demirtaş said: “The HDP is not a party of one man, a sultan. It is the real democratic party of the people. The doors of our party are open to all. You do not need money or funds to become an executive in this party. You need only two things: first, loyalty to the party programme and principles, secondly a brave heart, which you already have.” Demirtaş added that the upcoming elections will be the start of changing the administrative model based on monolithic power and to building a participatory, democratic autonomous model.

Following the speech of Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-chairs answered the questions of journalists in the hall.

Answering a question about the election threshold in Turkey, Demirtaş said: “We will exceed the threshold. We will pass it in such a way that no one will discuss it anymore”, and added that the electoral threshold that the AKP insistently defends is not the problem of only the HDP but of all the parties. “There is no other government that has benefited so much from the coup d’état”, he said.

Answering a question about the formation of a monitoring committee for the peace talks, Demirtaş said: “The participation of the main opposition party, the CHP, in the monitoring committee is essential for the continuation of the talks”. To another question, Demirtaş recalled that the road map has not yet been submitted to them and said the co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Hatip Dicle, will join the delegation of the HDP pursuing the talks and added that they insisted also on the participation of Ceylan Bağrıyanık from the Free Women’s Democratic Movement (DÖKH). Demirtaş said they hadn’t yet received an answer about her participation.

Concerning the visit of the MHP nationalist party leader Devlet Bahçeli to Dersim, Demirtaş said: “All the parties must be free to carry out politics anywhere they wish, but Bahçeli’s visit turned into a challenge after the provocations of the PM, and that’s why the people are protesting it”. Demirtaş said that repeating the state discourse that ignores the massacre of people in Dersim in the years of 1937-1938 was an insult and nothing but a provocation that both the PM and Bahceli were pursuing. Demirtaş said they must stop this political cruelty over the pains of Dersim.