HDP Co-Chair On İstanbul Election Rerun: 'We will Do Tomorrow What We Did Yesterday'

Click to read the article in Turkish

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair has spoken at his party's parliamentary group meeting, making remarks on the cancellation of the İstanbul elections and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan's statement after meeting with his lawyers for the first time in eight years.

"It is late, it is deficient but we can say that this is a positive step in terms of the law. The meetings should be legally guaranteed. Öcalan and the other three convicts should enjoy the rights and the frame that the laws draw as all convicts do," Temelli said.

"We warned Turkey"

HDP's elected but not mandated mayors were also present at the meeting. The Supreme Election Council (YSK) had ruled that people who were previously discharged by a statutory decree should not be mandated and the second-placed candidate should be given the certificate of the election instead.

The HDP lost six district municipalities in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeast because of that verdict.

"YSK lost all of its legitimacy. But we have said this many times. We warned Turkey, all the peoples. But Turkey did not look at Muş, did not look at Malazgirt. It didn't look at the unlawfulness that the HDP was subjected to," Temelli said.

"What will HDP do?"

Temelli briefly made following remarks on the İstanbul election rerun:

"There is a YSK who became the notary of the AKP-MHP bloc, who does whatever order the government gives.

"'Will HDP nominate a candidate in İstanbul? What will HDP do?' There is no need for the public to be busy with this.

"Whenever there is unlawfulness, there will be HDP. Don't forget, without HDP, there wouldn't be the March 31. Without HDP there will be no future. Don's waste of time thinking about what we will do. What will you do?

"What HDP does is clear. There is no need for manipulation in this country on what HDP did.

"We set a strategy on March 31, we changed the course of the politics. We didn't do this for three municipalities. We strived for the peace which Turkey misses. Tomorrow, we will continue to do what we did yesterday." (AS/VK)