BDP co-chair Gultan Kisanak, one of the candidates excluded from running the elections by the High Elections Board, said that "We have a serious democracy problem in Turkey, a problem of restrictions on rights and freedoms. The decision made by YSK (Supreme Election Board) has been a decision that serves to this case, comments more broadly, blocks the ways of the right to legal remedies and deals a blow to the democratic struggle."

Gultanak in her statement added that "The decision does not have any legal validity. The law exists to provide justice, to relieve consciences. If the law abuses the trust in justice, if it hurts consciences, this is called a law state, not a constitutional state.

They hold discussions comparing the state of law and constitution and prefer to be a state of law. A state of law is a method where the majority rules over minorities, oppress smaller groups. This must be disallowed."

As for the individual situations Kisanak underlined that "This situation does not go together with the Turkey of the 21st century. The situations of our friends are unexplainable with legal justifications. And the situation regarding me; an unknown case from 2007 is reflected to the media as if newly discovered. This is completely a prevarication.

I am calling the YSK to announce to public the documents I presented to them in 2007. My deputy candidateship was approved by them although I conveyed the detailed report of the Supreme Court’s criminal record office in 2007."

As for her personal condition Gultanaka said: "I was a victim of the 12 September as a university student in Diyarbakir. Mr. Ertugrul Kürkcü is again a victim of the 12 March putsch. Claiming to settle accounts with the coups, Turkey is once more aggrieving the victims of coups now. A great intervention is implemented on the will of people."

Translation: Berna Ozgencil