TURKEY

 HDP co-chairs say they will not run as candidates at the party’s next congress

HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar announced that they will not run as candidates at the party’s next congress.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Monday, 5 Jun 2023

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar were guests of a live program on Medya Haber TV.

Speaking about the election results, Buldan said: “We could not reach our target. I want to express this very frankly. This is, of course, a matter for self-criticism. We found that we could not manage the campaign process very well. We could not reach circles outside ours, we could not grow. Not all different segments were represented. For example, the lack of representation of Armenians, Yazidis and disabled people were important shortcomings.”

Buldan said: “Our party will go to congress after the meetings with our committees, since our goals were not achieved. I am ready to do whatever is my duty at every stage of this struggle, and take into account all the criticisms. I would be honored to leave the post of co-chair to another friend of mine at this congress. I will not take part in any decision mechanism during the congress process. At this stage, we have a responsibility to respond. There is no leaving. We will be accountable to our people, to our base, to women. I think that's the most important thing."

Emphasizing that the Green Left Party could not achieve the votes they wanted, Sancar said: “We consider ourselves unsuccessful in this respect, but there was no defeat. The government did everything to liquidate democratic politics. The fact that we could even be elected is an important situation in itself. We broke that, we entered the election."

Regarding the statements of HDP former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, Sancar said: “Demirtaş is a very valuable friend and comrade. It is not something we consider right to question his intentions. We did not rely on any factor other than the concern of how we could strengthen our party in harmony with all our friends. We visited Demirtaş in prison. He said that he had a legal obstacle, and then he explained it to the press. Then we went to Kandıra to get ideas from Figen Yüksekdağ and Gültan Kışanak. They suggested that if a candidate was to be presented, it should be a woman. We discussed these proposals in our committees. There was a strong favour for female candidates. This was conveyed to Demirtaş as well, and he said that he supported this idea.”