“The entrance of HDP in the Parliament in Ankara, is positive for Kurdistan, but also for Turkey and the Middle East
The legislative elections held on June 7th in Turkey have yielded results that promise to change the landscape in the country. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party, AKP, have lost the absolute majority at their disposal for 13 years.
As a result, Erdogan can not implement the constitutional reform he wanted to set to strengthen his power. This is good news because the AKP has conducted a markedly neliberal socioeconomic policy, which has been accompanied by measures restricting freedom of expression, as evidenced by the response to the movements for democracy held in Gezi park and Taksin square.
The loss of influence of AKP is also relevant for regional policy. As fighters of the Kurdish cause in Rojava have denounced, that the Ankara government has not maintained a sufficiently active policy to tackle the advance of the Islamic State, neither in Syria, nor in Iraq.
In any case the best news of this election is undoubtedly the step forward taken by the Kurdish left.
Overcoming the legal threshold of 10% of the vote, the Halkların Demokratik Partisi (HDP) has achieved 13.1% of the votes, which will give them 80 seats (31 of them to be held by women) in the Parliament in Ankara.
The HDP has achieved tremendous results in Kurdistan, but also has managed to reap significant support in major Turkish cities. And this is based on a program in which the demands for recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people and in favor of the peace process, have been added to proposals about gender equality, multiculturalism, ecology and, most notably in favor of social rights.
The leader of HDP Demirtas answered the serious attack suffered by the coalition in the final rally in Diyarbakir with a clear “Peace will win”. This has beent the last in a long series of attacks,provocations and attempts of criminalisation.
EH Bildu, had already transmitted to HDP its solidarity and support before the elections, and we can only welcome the encouraging electoral results achieved by the Kurdish left.
We have no doubt: the electoral advance of HDP will be an incentive in the process of national and social liberation of Kurdistan.
Congratulations HDP! Biji Kurdistan!”