Kongra-Gel co-chair Remzi Kartal said at a meeting in Amsterdam regarding the June general election in Turkey that a deliberate manipulation is at work concerning the electoral threshold that HDP faces. Kartal said this threshold is in fact a psychological one, and HDP can exceed the threshold.

The Amsterdam Democratic Society Centre is in preparation for its congress and held a preparatory meeting at HTIB, attended by representatives of democratic organisations and NGOs as well as the Kongra-Gel co-chair Remzi Kartal.

Kartal drew attention to the importance of the general election in Turkey on 7 June, stressing that it is an opportunity to stop the dangerous advance of the AKP towards a dictatorship, adding that all the people who defend an egalitarian, democratic, just future based on the self-government of the people must come together under the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which has a pluralist and widely organised structure.

Kartal said contrary to some allegations appearing in the Turkish media, there is no hidden agenda of the Kurdish Freedom Movement shared with the AKP, adding that the Kurdish Freedom Movement has pursued its policies in an open, transparent way in defence of democracy and freedoms for long years.

Kartal also touched upon the allegations that the HDP will not be able to pass the %10 percent electoral threshold, saying that these allegations are nothing but deliberate manipulations, as the threshold is a psychological one.

Kartal stressed that in order for the HDP to sustain success in the election, the electorate living in Europe must also organise a strong campaign reaching out to all the people street by street, adding that every vote counts in this election.

Concerning the upcoming congress of the Amsterdam Democratic Society Centre, Kartal said it should be a centre open to the participation of the people to take decisions for themselves and called on people to come together at the Centre.

The other speakers at the meeting also drew attention to the importance of the upcoming election in Turkey and called for organised work in support of the HDP in Europe.