ANKARA, Turkey – The new co-chair of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) has told Rudaw that the party has to review and draw conclusions from studying the events that have changed Turkey in the last few years, including the Turkish referendum on the constitution held in April in order "to come out stronger" and be responsive to ever increasing demands by the people in Turkey for democracy and reconciliation.
The HDP elected Serpil Kemalbay as the party's new co-leader Saturday replacing the former co-leader Figen Yuksekdag whose party membership was revoked by the country's Supreme Court earlier in the year.
Speaking to Rudaw in Ankara, Kemalbay said that the party has to rethink its policies in Turkey in light of the outcome of the Turkish referendum held on April 16 that shifted Turkey's system to a presidential one with sweeping powers in the hands of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the resumed clashes between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish state since mid-2015, and the general elections in 2015 which for the first time saw a pro-Kurdish party enter the Turkish parliament.
The following is the full transcript of an interview Rudaw conducted with her in Ankara after her election by party members in Saturday's emergency congress:
Thank you. As you know, we held an emergency congress in which we concentrated our efforts in order to come out stronger in a new phase. We renewed some of our party members, some party decision-making bodies and organizations.
This means we had an opportunity and we made some changes. In the phase ahead of us, as you know from June 7 [2015 general elections] until April 16 [2016 constitution referendum], the demands of Turkey’s nations regarding democracy and reconciliation are continuously increasing and efforts are taken to deal with [these demands]. This has a lot of support. Right from the beginning, we as the People's Democratic Party, and even during the recess as the People's Democratic Congress worked on these endeavors and regarded these endeavors as the most important.
But at this stage, we are working on democracy and reconciliation more intensely. This is felt better from the perspective of the nation. 16 of April [referendum on constitution] showed us this.
In the next phase, we will be working on a special roadmap for democracy and reconciliation. The people of Turkey, the oppressed, the labor force, women and youth, life within the framework of a state based on laws and a democratic Turkey, also within the framework of basic human rights. We will be working for these, making a worthwhile life possible for all, life in a society in which women are free, life in Turkey in which the youth are not hopeless, we have worked to achieve these things harder. In this phase, we will be meeting with our organizations and will be discussing the details.
We do this by going back to the stage of peace process and confrontations and drawing conclusions from these events, added to that is the 16 April referendum. 
The explanations of the co-leader Selahattin Demirtas who is taken hostage was read out here. He is also working on a roadmap. This is not something new. We do this by going back to the stage of peace process and confrontations and drawing conclusions from these events, added to that is the 16 April referendum. From now and on, we will hold discussions to advance the reconciliation and democratic efforts. Through this [process] we will provide a model, and based on it we will continue our work.
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