Demirtas: HDP is Turkey’s party of the oppressed, women, laborers

Jailed Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas replied to criticism which says Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) do not fully belong to Turkey, saying HDP is the party of “the oppressed, the laborers, the women, not torturers, guardians and thieves,” in an article he wrote for Diken news web site.

The Pro Kurdish HDP is often criticized by both the ruling block and the opposition for focusing mostly on Kurdish problems, thus failing to be a “Turkey’s party.”

But Demirtas said the reason behind the criticism was that HDP “defended the rights of everyone without discrimination by voicing the oppression, injustice and lawlessness inflicted on Kurds, Alevis and Armenians in this land.”

When a party expresses the pain caused by burning villages, tortures by the state officials and urges the need to face these issues, “that is not Turkey’s Party,” former HDP co-chair said. 

If this party refuses to fight "until the last terrorist is killed", but tries to solve the problems by talking and “without killing anyone", then it is unable to become Turkey’s party, Demirtas said. 

“They say ‘You are not Turkey’s party’ if you mention different languages, cultures, peoples living on this land, and they must be recognized to live together in peace,” he said. 

Demirtas said what HDP aimed was to establish a second Turkey where the oppressed, the women, people with different identities, the laborers owned the country.

He concluded that anyone who claims to democratize Turkey in the second century of its foundation must internalize the radical democratic policies and turn to a bold change accordingly.