HDP Deputy Co-Chair Tayip Temel on the upcoming elections, how the HDP will campaign with the Green Left Party (Yeşil Sol Parti) and possible political developments.
The International Conference on “The European Union, Turkey, the Middle East and the Kurds” took place in the European Parliament on 8-9 March. Read the shortened version of the opening statement by co-organiser Dersim Dağdeviren as well as the final declaration here.
With support from NATO, the regime of the dictatorial Turkish president Erdoğan is not only continuing its war against the Kurdish people and their allies inside Turkey’s borders but is expanding it to Syria and Iraq, Sweden and Finland. The International Kurdish Solidarity Collective issued following Declaration regarding the latest attacks.
The shotgun attack on the HDP office in the city of Izmir on 17 June, in which a 20-year-old woman Deniz Poyraz, the daughter of a party employee, was killed, is the latest in a series of attacks against Turkey’s biggest left-wing opposition party. It occurred in a very heated political climate fostered by the Turkish government.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's misogynist treatment of Ursula von der Leyen should not divert from wider concerns as to why the EU keeps turning a blind eye to a Turkish leader notorious for his contempt for women's and human rights, Left (formerly GUE/NGL) Co-Presidents say in recent a statement.
While the discontent of relevant sections of the Turkish population with current government policies is growing, Turkish government has escalated its campaign of repression against the left-wing opposition party HDP. At this point, the reaction of moderate Turkish civil society actors will be crucial.
Joint statement by Manon Aubry and Martin Schirdewan, Co-Presidents of The Left group in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL and Tiny Kox, President of the European Left group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for 82 people, including a mayor, over pro-Kurdish protests sparked by Isis seizure of Kobane six years ago. The European Left (EL) forcefully condemns all the anti-democratic intimidations and arrests of the protesters and expresses the solidarity with HDP and other progressive activists in Turkey.
As Turkish troops prepare to invade the Kurdish autonomous areas in northeast Syria, Left MEP Özlem Demirel (DIE LINKE, Germany) appealed for urgent efforts to put a stop to the threat.
“The European Union and the international community must condemn in the strongest terms this aggressive and...
In the night of June 24, the sentence which my mother makes after every election we lose, ‘’we are in the minority again’’, echoed in my ears. My father, who was a fanatic supporter of Republican People Party (CHP), which is the main opposition party of Turkey currently, could not be able to recover...
Last night the purge of President Erdogan against our party has reached another peak: our Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdag, along with 11 further Members of Parliament of our party have been detained across Turkey last night. More arrests are to be expected. The goal of these measures is to shut down the third largest party in parliament.
The two co-leaders of the People's Democracy Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were detained at their respective homes. 11 other MPs from HDP were also taken into custody.
After the failed military coup attempt on 15 July, with the political decision of President Erdoğan, Justice and Development Party (AKP) government immediately declared “state of emergency” for three months in order to fight with the coup plotters.
The elections held on November 1, 2015 resulted in a huge success for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its “former” leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The AKP increased its votes almost all over the country and gained parliamentary majority which it had lost at the June 7 elections.
Turkey’s crucial parliamentary election concluded with an amazing outcome: Since the implementation of the very anti-democratic election threshold of 10%, The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a leftist and pro-Kurdish party, managed to pass it for the first time.
With its progressive and realistic election programme and wide range of candidates, HDP represents a preferable political party for the workers, farmers, women, youth, LGTBI, different ethnic and/or religious groups. An election success of HDP will raise hopes of people for a change in current situation of the country also by bringing closer the Gezi resistance and the Kobanê resistance.
Once again, this year, in Istanbul, the government banned May Day demonstrations and the police attacked fiercely protestors with pepper gas and water cannons. 39,000 members of the police prevented workers and people from celebrating May Day at the central square of Istanbul, Taksim Square.
First information from 12 March on the funeral of the 14-year-old Berkin Elvan in Istanbul and the following demonstration and protests and police violence.
A historical uprising has resulted in new practices, potentially very fruitful for closer investigation for progressives in both Europe and the Middle East.
Plunging into the maze of tents in Taksim Square and the Gezi Gardens, members of the ELP delegation (2 members of its Political Committee and two leading members of Syriza) we sought to pinpoint the many organisations and demands.
Since end of May police is cracking down protesters in Turkey, 5 people are dead, 5000 people are injured. What began as protest against the construction of a shopping mall at Gezi Park in Istanbul turned to a broad protest movement in whole Turkey against the authoritarian politics of the turkish government.