Demirtas: Kurds do not want to wait in the “next” room

Imprisoned politician Selahattin Demirtas said the Kurds do not want to wait in the “next” room but to sit side by side with all and discuss Turkey’s common future.

“Turkey belongs to all of us and the HDP is also a part of it. The Republic is our common value and of course we will live together in it. Why it is seen as a strange request to sit side by side in the same room and talk about our common future together, in a civilized and brotherly way,” Demirtas said.

The HDP is not asking too much, Demirtas said in an article he penned for the T24 news website on Tuesday.

“If the HDP's well-intentioned attitude is ignored, then it will put forward its own candidate and enter a fierce election race,” he said.

Turkey is facing presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June. Six opposition parties, including the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) are working to put forward a joint candidate in the presidential race. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who earlier said it is open to negotiations with the six other opposition parties over the idea of supporting a joint candidate, on Saturday announced that it will nominate its own candidate to run against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the first round of upcoming elections and the name of the candidate will be declared soon.

HDP’s former co-Chair Demirtas asked why the six-party bloc’s negotiating in support of a joint candidate deemed unnecessary when it comes to the HDP.

“Us, the HDP members cannot understand this,” he said.

“People make dialogue even when buying tomatoes from a grocery shop. How do you explain of avoiding dialogue with the HDP while asking the support of seven million voters,” Demirtas said.

According to the Kurdish politician, getting the support of those seven million voters is indispensable not only in terms of electoral mathematics, but also in terms of the country's internal peace and democracy.

While Turkey is preparing to make a social peace, fraternity, equality and coexistence agreement in the centennial year of the Republic, it is important not to make an impression of leaving out a significant part of the society, Demirtas said.

“Turkey belongs to all of us and HDP is also a part of it. The Republic is our common value and of course we will live together in it. Why it is seen as a strange request to sit side by side in the same room and talk about our common future together, in a civilized and brotherly way,” he asked.

HDP is not asking too much, Demirtas said.

What it wants is that the six-party bloc’s joint candidate to sit down and discuss the general principles of democracy openly and transparently with the HDP and the entire opposition, so that he/she can become the joint candidate of the people, he said.

“The HDP does not impose the impossible on anyone, it just shows the rational and the legitimate, it shows the way for the joint candidate to win by a large margin as the guarantee of democracy in the elections,” Demirtas said.

“There is no such problem that cannot be solved, as long as everyone has the courage to hold the outstretched hand, as long as there is an intention to work together and cooperate for a solution, not for the crisis,” he said.

“If the HDP's well-intentioned attitude is ignored, then it will put forward its own candidate and enter a fierce election race. For all these reasons, the HDP's preparations to nominate a candidate are justified, legitimate, and a principled stance that should be supported,” Demirtas said.