Progressive International: We Stand whit the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
On 8 February, two days after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited one of its worst affected cities and said: ‘This period is a period of unity.’ He went on to denounce criticisms of his government’s earthquake response ‘simply for the sake of political interests.’
But Erdoğan is doing exactly what he purports to criticise. Apart from confiscating and monopolising aid and assistance to prop up his support at the upcoming elections, his government continues to prosecute politically motivated cases against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) amid the national crisis.
On 17 March 2021, Turkey’s Prosecutor General’s Office first filed a lawsuit for a political ban of the HPD before Turkey’s Constitutional Court. As a consequence, on 5 January 2023 — around half a year before the election date — the Constitutional Court ruled to freeze the HDP’s bank accounts and block its share of public funds for the electoral campaign, amounting to 539 million Turkish lira ($28.7m).
This trial to ban the HDP is now entering its final phase. On 11 April, just a few weeks before the elections, the Constitutional Court will hear HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar’s arguments against the suspension of the party’s funding and the attempt to dissolve it. And it could make its final ruling at any point before the elections.
The closure case is the culmination of a state campaign against the HDP that began in 2015 when it first entered parliament as an independent party. Since then, thousands of party members, including its former co-chairs and several elected mayors, have been detained on flimsy pretexts.
The possibility that the country’s third largest party in parliament — representing more than 10% of the popular vote in the past two general elections — could be permanently banned so close to the upcoming elections places Turkish democracy in dire jeopardy.
The peoples of Turkey must be able to freely and fairly elect their representatives — including the HDP. The party strives for a democratic and inclusive Turkey, with freedom, equality and justice for all. It stands for ecology, women’s emancipation, and the peaceful co-existence of different ethnic and religious groups.
If the Erdoğan government dissolves the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), it will likewise dissolve the foundations of democracy in Turkey.
We defend the HDP’s right to freedom of association, expression, peaceful assembly and participation in the upcoming elections. It is time to end the legal attacks against the HDP now, once and for all.
Signed,
Noam Chomsky, Professor, United States
Jeremy Corbyn, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Janine Wissler, Member of the Bundestag; Co-chair of Die Linke, Germany
Yanis Varoufakis, Member of the Hellenic Parliament, Greece
Niki Ashton, Member of Parliament for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, Canada
Jean-Luc Melenchon, Fmr Member of the National Assembly, France
Leïla Chaibi, Member of European Parliament, France
Juliano Medeiros, President of the Party of Socialism and Freedom, Brazil
Idoia Villanueva, Member of the European Parliament; Head of Podemos International Secretariat, Spain
Manu Pineda, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Nikolaj Villumsen, Member of the European Parliament, Denmark
Zarah Sultana, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Apsana Begum, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
John McDonnell, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Marc Botenga, Member of the European Parliament, Belgium
Ericka Ñanco Vásquez, Mapuche Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Nadia Whittome, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Sophia Chikirou, Member of the National Assembly, France
Andy McDonald, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Gonzalo Winter, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Arnaud Le Gall, Member of the National Assembly, France
Beth Winter, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Amanda Della Ventura, Member of the Mercosur Parliament; Member of the Senate, Uruguay
Ricardo Canese, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Paraguay
Adolfo Mendoza Leigue, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Bolivia
Sandra Pereira, Member of the European Parliament, Portugal
Daniel Caggiani, Member of the Senate, Uruguay
Manon Aubry, Member of the European Parliament, France
Alejandro Sánchez, Member of the Senate, Uruguay
András Jámbor, Member of Parliament, Hungary
Fabian Molina, Member of the Swiss National Council, Switzerland
Martin Schirdewan, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Chris MacManus, Member of the European Parliament, Ireland
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Martina Michels, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Sebastián Sabini, Member of the Senate, Uruguay
Daniel Olesker, Member of the Senate, Uruguay
Stelios Kouloglou, Member of the European Parliament, Greece
Özlem Demirel, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Miguel Urbán, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Helmut Scholz, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Sandra Lazo, Member of the Senate, Uruguay
Cornelia Ernst, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Nathalie Oberweis, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Luxembourg
Ana Merelis, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Bolivia
Liliam Kechichián, Member of the Senate, Uruguay
Richard Leonard, Member of the Scottish Parliament, United Kingdom
Sara Condori, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Bolivia
Myriam Cecchhetti, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Luxembourg
Walden Bello, Fmr Member of the House of Representatives, Philippines
Ammar Ali Jan, Haqooq-e-Khalq Movement, Pakistan
Maite Mola, Head of International Relations, Party of the European Left, Spain
Christian Rodriguez, Head of International Relations, La France Insoumise, France
Tauriq Jenkins, High Commissioner of the Goringhaicona KhoiKhoin Indigenous Traditional
Council, South Africa
Martha Ruiz, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Bolivia
Mametlwe Sebei, President of General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA),
South Africa
Nilab Ahmadi, City Council Member of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amineh Kakabaveh, Fmr Member of Parliament, Sweden
Srećko Horvat, Philosopher, Croatia
Kerem Schamberger, Media researcher, Germany