Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Sezai Temelli held a press conference in Izmir together with members of the HDP İzmir Provincial Organization and HDP Central Executive Board (MYK) to talk about the 24 June elections.

The importance of the HDP presence in Parliament

Temelli said that the HDP presence in Parliament is important when it comes to democracy and freedom in Turkey. The HDP Co-Chair also stressed that the party’s presidential candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, is a candidate for the whole country.  “Our goal - said Temelli - is to win the first and second round. To secure this victory we have doubled our work. Clearly the HDP also aims to overcome the threshold so to have a stronger presence in Parliament”.

Indicating that the Aegean region and especially Izmir is an important constituency for the HDP, Temelli said that expectations from İzmir were high. “Izmir is a city of democracy. - he said - If by this we mean that fighting for democracy is fighting for a full life, then the contribution of the Aegean and İzmir constituency will be meaningful”.

Insisting on the need to defeat the threshold, Temelli said that “this is not just affecting the HDP, it is affecting democracy. Turkey should lower this threshold for the sake of democracy. Alliances can be built around the need to lower the threshold”.

As to the one-man system, the presidential system Recep Tayyip Erdogan would like to implement, Temelli said: “We are seeing every day the opposition is growing to this one-man system. People have said ‘Enough’ even in social media. It is time to change. We are saying ‘together we can change this’. We can make this go away”.

We will save Turkey

Temelli confirmed that on Monday 14 May, the party will publish and share its election manifestos in Ankara. “We will announce the presidential campaign schedule. We formulated the manifestos and the campaign on the basis of the need for a transitional program. Turkey needs a new social contract. All sections of society need to come together and write a social contract. HDP is calling for this to happen. Let's create a collective agreement, a social contract which is a bridge among all sections of society, a space in which to build a common citizen democratic republic where we can all live together”.

Answering journalists’ questions, Temelli said that the “threshold in elections is a risk, not just for the HDP, it is a siege of democracy. And for this we call on people to break this siege”.

As to the economic crisis faced by Turkey, Temelli said that “the way to overcome the economic crisis is actually a democracy program”. He stressed that “war policies, clearly, have worsened the economy”.

Asked whether there is any chance of freedom for Demirtaş so to enable him to campaign, Temelli said that “indeed Demirtaş has been in prison for 18 months now. We know of the illegality of the whole case against our presidential candidate. This is a real shame. Yet, we continue to apply for Demirtaş to be set free. We will make our applications to the Constitutional Court, as well as to the European Court of Human Rights and to the YSK once again on Monday”.

Temelli underlined that “this election is held under Emergency State rules, which also make things more complicated. What is clear - he added - is the fact that without HDP there can be no solution”.

Ending with some comments on the AKP-MHP alliance, Temelli said: “This is a dirty alliance. A convenience deal, which actually cast a bad light on the word alliance. An alliance is needed to begin a serious work for the democratisation of this country. This is what we set off to do in the next 45 days of campaign”.