HDP elects new co-chairs ahead of key votes in 2019
9:41 p.m.
The pro-Kurdish HDP party has elected Pervin Buldan, a Kurd, and Sezai Temelli, a Turk, as new co-chairs of the party on Sunday.
More than 30,000 people took part in the one-day third party congress in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
(L-R) New co-chairmen of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Pervin Buldan (L) and Sezai Temelli (R) applaud outgoing co-chairwoman Serpil Kemalbay during the HDP Congress in Ankara on February 11, 2018. Photo:AFP/Adem Altan
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4:03 pm
‘2018 will be the year of HDP's contributions to peace’: Temelli
Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli are the nominees for the co-chair positions. They were selected by consensus by a commission in advance of the congress.
Pervin Buldan, 50, a Kurd born in Hakkari province. Her husband, Savas Buldan was accused of being financing the PKK. He was abducted and killed in 1994.
She founded an association for the families of missing persons and is a member of the Saturday Mothers – group that commemorates victims of extrajudicial killings every Saturday. She entered politics in 2007 and is currently a HDP deputy for Istanbul and deputy speaker of the parliament.
“It is a source of honor for me to be given the position of Selahattin Demirtas who never compromised democratic and principled politics,” she told the congress.
She also thanked former co-chair Figen Yuksekdag, as a source of inspiration. “In the name of my party and myself, I thank beloved Yuksekdag for being on front in all conditions with her determination and inspiring us as women,” she said.
Buldan vowed that HDP will not succumb to the pressures being exerted on the party. “HDP did not kneel despite all the pressure, and it will not kneel. Let this be a lesson,” she asserted.
Sezai Temelli, 55, a Turk, is a founding member of HDP. He was elected to represent an Istanbul district in the June 2015, but lost his seat in the November 2015 election. He has served as the party’s vice chairman responsible for economic policy.
“2018 will be the year of HDP's contributions to peace,” he told the congress, vowing “HDP will give this tyrant government the most important lesson.”
He stressed that the party represents all the peoples of Turkey, saying “All of us – Kurds, Turks, Alevis, Sunnis, Romans, and Christians – will be organized and go into power with our radical understanding of democracy.”
“This is our goal,” he stated.
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12:32 pm
‘HDP is the party of oppressed Turks’
Selahattin Demirtas, imprisoned in Edirne, sent a message that was read out at the congress.
He expressed his thanks to his family and his many supporters over his six years as co-chair of the party. “When I die, write on my tombstone ‘this man owes his nation,’” he stated.
HDP is the party of all the people of Turkey – regardless of their religion or ethnicity, he said.
Opponents to HDP have accused the party of not being “Turkish” because of its support for the Kurdish cause. Demirtas said the people will decide whether HDP is Turkish or not.
“HDP is the party of oppressed Turks in the same way it is for oppressed Kurds,” he said, slamming other parties as “thieves,” driven by bribery.
He vowed that the party will remain a “hope” against the policies of the ruling AKP and the nationalist MHP.
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11:54 am
Congress takes place at 'historic time'
“Our congress is taking place at a very historic time,” co-chair Serpil Kemalbay said in a speech to the estimated 32,000 attendees.
Despite the “obstacles” thrown up by Turkish authorities, the congress went ahead, encouraged by the struggles of the jailed party members she said.
She criticized Ankara’s extended state of emergency, under which authorities have carried out mass arrests and cracked down on media. Kemalbay was also critical of the government’s economic policies.
On Afrin, she condemned Turkey’s military operation on the Kurdish canton in northern Syria, saying the offensive is “not reasonable in the eyes of the Turkish people,” noting that the people of Afrin had been living in peace.
She hailed the strong resistance in Afrin and accused the government of trying to conceal the real number of its casualties.
Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli are the nominees for the co-chair positions. They were selected by consensus by a commission in advance of the congress.
Serpil Kemalbay (in blue and white) flanked by the co-chair nominees Pervin Buldan (L) and Sezai Temelli (R). Photo: HDP
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9:54 am
Under the slogans ‘hope, bravery, determination' and 'together against fascism,' Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is holding its third congress on Sunday and it is expected to elect a replacement for imprisoned co-chair Selahattin Demirtas who announced in a letter from jail in January that he would not run for re-election.
He is facing up to 142 years in jail on terror-related charges.
He promised to remain a “servant of the democracy struggle,” doing all he can for HDP and urged people to join the party, saying, “You do not need money, power or a tribe to practice politics in our party. To possess courage and a love for the people in your heart is sufficient.”
The party, which drew support from leftists as well as Kurds, has been the consistent voice opposing what they call the increasing “authoritarianism” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After Turkey issued 17 arrest warrants, HDP co-chair Serpil Kemalbay among them, late last week on charges of opposing Operation Olive Branch on the Kurdish canton of Afrin, northern Syria, the party accused the authorities of trying to derail the congress.
“We condemn and protest these unlawful arrests. We want our arrested friends to be released immediately,” read a statement from Kemalbay on Friday.
HDP will hold its congress and come together with hope, determination, and bravery on the scheduled date, she added.
Kemalbay was chosen to replace Figen Yuksekdag after her party membership was revoked by a court following her conviction on terror charges in 2017.
HDP members and supporters have been targeted for investigation and arrest since the parliament voted to lift immunity from a select group of lawmakers in 2016 on terror charges stemming from allegations of ties to the PKK, a named terror organization. HDP denies the accusation.
Nine HDP lawmakers are currently in jail.
HDP has sent invitations to parties of the Kurdistan Region to attend the congress. Busloads of party members from across Turkey traveled to Ankara to take part.
Turkey will hold several elections in 2019 – local elections in March and presidential and parliamentary elections in November. This will be the first time people go to the polls since adopting constitutional amendments that strengthened the presidency in a referendum in April 2017.
