HDP co-chair Sezai Temelli met with the provincial and district organizations of his party in Izmir. After the meeting he met the press.

Temelli addressed a number of issues at the meeting, from ill prisoners to the hunger strike carried out by HDP Hakkari MP, Leyla Güven, from the crisis in Syria to the local elections.

Ill prisoners

On ill prisoners Temelli said: “I want to start our press conference with the injustice in our homeland. Unfortunately, I have to begin by commemorating Ibrahim Akbaba who died when he was due to join the hearing of his trial via SEGBIS yesterday. An ill prisoner who was not released and ended up losing his life. That’s the type of country we live in, a lawless country.”

Temelli added: “As you know, more than 1100 ill prisoners are kept in jail in our country and about 500 of them face death. Despite the fact that we repeatedly warned and applied to the Ministry of Justice, no steps were taken. There are hundreds of ill prisoners who could share the fate of Ibrahim Akbaba. Ibrahim Akbaba was not given the treatment he needed. He was tried in Mardin, but he was being held in Edirne prison.”

The resistance of Leyla Güven

Speaking about HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven, Temelli said: “One big injustice is that no attempt to respond to the demand of Leyla Güven is made, and she is on the 52th day of her hunger strike. Leyla Güven expresses a very clear demand: to end the isolation imposed on Mr. Öcalan and let the lawyers meet with him. Leyla Güven has serious health problems and insensitivity to this issue will lead to negative developments in her health.”

Temelli insisted that isolation “is a very important issue in this country” because it shows the state of the country: Turkey has been dragged behind in the last 3 and a half years in all fields, social, economic and political.

Ending isolation, said Temelli, will help reverse this trend and give hope to the reinstatement of democracy.

Erdoğan and fascism

Temelli continued: “We are facing a power that terrorizes the whole community by hiding behind the TMK (anti-terror law). Erdoğan is now stretching the society further and making hate speech the norm. With the presidential system, he seeks to turn the authority he receives from the State of Emergency into a regular system. This is fascism. It is the time for all people against fascism to stand up against this violence and injustice and to claim their rights.”

Roboski Massacre

Temelli commemorated the victims at 7th anniversary of the Roboski Massacre, and said it is perhaps the worst injustice seen in the last 10 years. He called on everyone to ensure justice is done.

Economic crisis

HDP Co-chair underlined that Turkey is trapped into a severe economic crisis as shown by a serious decline in the third quarter, which, he said, will turn into negative in the last quarter.

The biggest cause of this economic crisis is the current power, said Temelli adding: “The result of their policies has led to a major crisis in the country. For the welfare of a particular and small section of our society, the majority is left suffering and in poverty.”

Occupation threats

Temelli reminded that the ruling power in Turkey not only allowed DAESH mercenary to cross borders but also “fed them with weapons.”

He added that Turkey wants to preserve chaos in Syria in order to allow DAESH to enter a new phase. Temelli reminded of Afrin, where the people were living in peace, together, and this environment was destroyed by Turkish attacks and invasion, together with DAESH mercenaries who plunder and ransack the city and villages.

“While Idlib is waiting for the solution, - said Temelli - there is an understanding that seeks to exploit the mercenaries in Idlib. The whole point is to prevent the Kurds in Syria from taking part in the political process. However, we know that the Kurds and other peoples in Syria have made a common struggle to live together and now they exist and continue to fight for the democratic political solution.”

Today, said Temelli “should be a priority to have a democratic and political solution in Syria. The way to achieve this is that the Kurds, especially those in Rojava, come together with the Syrian government to work on a solution. We believe that the Syrian administration will not be dragged into its past mistakes and will find a solution by taking into account the current Syrian reality and the demands of the peoples.”

The priority, said Temelli, remains “to end DAESH and the other mercenaries. International forces should only support the Syrian people, the Syrian administration and liberate Syria from DAESH barbarism. Syria needs a constitution and the Geneva process is important for the solution. But in the Geneva process, all sides must be around that table.”

US decision to pull out from Syria

It is correct, said Temelli, “for foreign forces to leave Syria. We support the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria. But this withdrawal must be according to a plan, a program. Because the fight against DAESH is not over and is not won. The very presence of military foreign forces in Syria is linked to the war against DAESH. We believe that the peoples of Syria are those who should decide their future, without foreign interferences, but the US decision to pull out when the war against DAESH is not won, does not actually help the people of Syria. We believe the international community and the UN have a big responsibility to answer to this new situation”.

Local elections

To get rid of all these injustices, said Temelli, “the peoples of Turkey have a chance. This opportunity is represented by the local elections scheduled for 31 March 2019.”