Kurdish painter's work sold in auction to support HDP
A painting by Kurdish painter Hakan Yasar was sold to the highest bidder in an auction organized to provide financial support for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who had recently been deprived of the Treasury's political funding by an order of Turkey's Constitutional Court.
The painting was sold for 200,000 TL (approx. $10,600) in the auction that is part of HDP's donation campaign, "Our Treasury is the People."
3. Hdp’ye destek için bu çalışmayı seçmemin nedeni. Amed sergime gelen @Basak__Demirtas ın sergide en beğendiği çalışmam olması.
— Hakan Yaşar (@HakanYasarArt) January 26, 2023
Kendisine hediye etme şansı bulamadım en azından HDP’ye ufak bir destek olsun. #HazinemizHalkımız pic.twitter.com/6cBBbovmtz
Yasar earlier said he decided to put the painting titled "Immigration" up for auction after Basak Demirtas, wife of imprisoned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, expressed her admiration for the painting at an exhibition in Diyarbakir.
"It is a work that tells the story of an immigrant woman," Yasar said. "What led me to start working on it was that feeling of absence that people who moved away from their homelands, people like me, are unable to shake off no matter how secure they are in their new lives."
After the painting was sold in the auction, Yasar said:
"It is an incredible joy to be able to make a donation by means of art to HDP, who is the greatest hope for democracy, justice, peace and prosperity. The organizations who are blinded by avarice and who will disband the moment they are deprived of their interests naturally cannot understand the power of being virtuous, and they resort to lawless bans. The virtuous will help Turkey navigate towards democracy, justice and peace in the coming elections through solidarity and struggle."
He added:
"The power of art against injustice and lawlessness!"
Hakan Yasar was born in Turkey's Konya province and he has been living in Norway for 30 years.
