"We attribute the lack of confidence in the country to the billions of dollars spent on bombs and bullets. We will oppose the war policy and work together with society for prosperity," says HDP youth spokesperson Rohat Gövercin.
The Supreme Election Board (YSK) in Turkey announced last week that seven million first-time voters are eligible to vote in the parliamentary and presidential elections on 14 May. In total, there are 64,191,285 eligible voters. Rohat Gövercin, the co-spokesperson of the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) Youth Council and a member of the party's executive committee, spoke to ANF about his demands and expectations.
Former MHP politician Sinan Oğan, one of the racist presidential candidates, said on a TV channel that one third of the seven million young people who will vote for the first time are HDP supporters and will vote for the Green Left Party (YSP). The HDP contests the elections under the YSP umbrella because of the ongoing closure case against it.
Rohat Gövercin said: "As we know, seven million people will vote for the first time. However, if we look at the Newroz celebrations, which we can call a referendum for the Kurdish people and their friends, not only will one in three vote for the YSP, there will be many more. Newroz was celebrated with enthusiasm and an overwhelmingly large proportion of those taking part were young people. Patriotic Kurdish youth and the youth of Turkey will play a crucial role in the 14 May elections, just as they have made Newroz 2023 a youth event. The main reason why fascist groups considered this potential dangerous was the clear formulation of demands for Newroz. The youth expressed their will, and the youth will shape their future. We think it is quite normal that they are afraid of it, and we want to emphasise again that the inevitable end will come for them too."
"WE DEMAND EQUALITY AND FREEDOM FOR ALL PEOPLES"
Gövercin noted that youth has been the driving force of life since the beginning of history and demands an equal and free life for all peoples of Turkey today. “With the annihilation plan against the Kurdish freedom movement decided by the Turkish state in 2014, the youth in particular have come under great pressure. The youth are meant to be weakened by a special war policy. However, one must understand the reality of the HDP correctly. The HDP could not be liquidated in the last years despite thousands of arrests and detentions in the last eight or nine years. It continues to resist. This is the main reason why AKP/MHP fascism has declined so much.”
Gövercin continued: “We attribute the fact that there is more talk of rights in Turkey, and especially for the youth, to the price paid by the Kurdish freedom movement. When we ask what the youth want, we should also ask how they have participated in history. There is a youth that participated in the fronts of the world wars, a youth that was used as slaves in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids; but there is also a youth that we do not hear about and that we do not put in its own bracket. We believe that the current government's policy towards youth is no different. Since youth identity is a social phenomenon, our demands are not only for the youth but for the whole society. We, the youth, who have been the subjects of life and shaped events throughout history, want an equal, free life for the peoples of Turkey, and we will build it."
WAR POLICY AT THE CENTRE OF THE PROBLEM
Rohat Gövercin emphasised that under the current conditions, the war of extermination against the Kurds is crucial for the youth's fear of the future. "If we look at the working youth and the students separately, we can clearly say that we see no future for either group in the current government," said the HDP youth spokesperson, pointing to the causes of the economic crisis in Turkey: "The fact that no job opportunities are being created for the working youth and that young people who will finish school or university do not see a future and prosperity in their own fields of work is actually based on a very deep-rooted problem.
We place the war policy to destroy the Kurdish people at the centre of our fear for the future. We attribute the lack of confidence in the country to the billions of dollars spent on bombs and bullets. We will oppose the war policy and work together with society for prosperity."
"WE MUST OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT"
Appealing to the youth, Rohat Gövercin concluded: "Our election appeal to the youth is actually very clear. We all have pent-up anger and demand change. There is a reality of a free country that we all long for. To achieve this, we must rally around the Green Left Party, work 24 hours a day if necessary, especially as young people, and overthrow the fascist AKP/MHP government."
