The co-chair of the formation does not specify if the HDP and its allies will support the opposition Kemal Kiliçdaroglu
March 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and its allies have announced this Wednesday that they will not present any candidate in the presidential elections scheduled for May 14 in Turkey, although they have not specified whether they will support the main opposition leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. .
“We have had a long discussion. We stated that we would nominate a candidate before the (February 6) earthquake, but after the change in conditions we have reviewed this decision,” HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan said, according to a statement released by the party through its website.
Thus, he pointed out that “there are less than two months left for one of the most crucial elections in the history of Turkey” and added that the country “is going through a historic moment that will determine the future of the country and of society”.
Buldan has criticized that “the economic and social policies applied by the Government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) during the last 21 years have created great destruction in all areas” and has pointed to “practices that have limited freedoms through of oppression and lawlessness”.
“The government of the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has stolen the president of society and threatens its future,” lamented Buldan, who has asserted that “this political power has fallen on the country like a nightmare and has spread a one-person mandate to every centimeter of the territory through all kinds of domination practices”.
For this reason, he has argued that “Turkey’s most basic need is a real and firm democracy based on the sovereignty of the people” and has said that the HDP “wants a system in which universal rights and freedoms are constitutionally recognized and guaranteed”. .
“It is not possible to achieve this objective without a strong local democracy in which local participation mechanisms operate,” he explained, before emphasizing that “the country and society will rise up on May 15 with hope.” “We will fulfill our historical responsibility in the face of the one-person mandate in the presidential elections,” she stressed.
“We are determined that those responsible for the destruction within the Government be held accountable,” he asserted, while noting that the Executive “has maintained an administration based on poverty, corruption, looting and rents.” For this reason, he has called for “a political system that improves people’s living conditions, guarantees justice, gender equality, respects nature and maintains a peaceful foreign policy.”
Along these lines, he has called for “permanent, realistic and inclusive solutions to social and political problems” and has said that “a person who polarizes society, creates tensions, generates internal and external enemies, fuels agitation and ignores the demands and aspirations of millions of citizens have no chance to win”, referring to the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The HPD and its allies have not specified whether they will back the candidacy of Kiliçdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who in the past has received the support of the former co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtas, imprisoned since 2016.
The pro-Kurdish party has been the target of a crackdown since the 2015 collapse of the peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), including dozens of arrests and convictions for alleged support for terrorism, something rejected by the HDP, who denounces political persecution.
Erdogan, who has already confirmed that he will run for re-election, ranks behind Kiliçdaroglu, who is backed by a coalition of opposition parties, according to several polls. The president could face the biggest challenge from him at the polls after two decades at the helm of the country as prime minister and then as president.
