Independent MP Ahmet Şık joins Workers’ Party of Turkey

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Independent İstanbul MP Ahmet Şık, who resigned from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in early May 2020, has joined the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP). The decision of the MP has been announced to the public at a press conference held at the TİP Central Office.

Addressing the public from the party headquarters in the capital city of Ankara today (April 19), Ahmet Şık made a brief statement at the conference which was held with the participation of TİP Chair and İstanbul MP Erkan Baş and TİP Vice Chair and Hatay MP Barış Atay.

Şık announced his decision, saying, "...so that we can all together reach out for hopeful days, which seem distant."

'We need a shared obstinacy'

Referring to the recent situation in Turkey, Şık noted that "while the atmosphere of the country descends on us with its all gloom, deepening our pessimism, it also insistently calls on us to be obstinate."

"Because as you all know, everything is a matter of obstinacy in this country," Şık said: "In a country where the ones who stifle peace, democracy and the law draw the lines, leading a life insistent on peace, democracy and the law, even existing there, is a matter of obstinacy in itself."

"And I know that we are obstinate. This is an obstinacy that stand on the side of the ones who are right and who wage a struggle for their rights. Because the most important thing that life teaches us is the following: Obstinacy always wins," added Ahmet Şık further.

Underlining the "need for a shared obstinacy", Şık said, "We are not bound by the ones who push the people who want to get rid of a dicta regime where everyone is similarized and forced to be similarized to desperation."

"As the ones who are not intimidated from obstinating for labor, equality, peace, democracy and freed, do not fear or never look down, we are not alone," Ahmet Şık stated, adding that he joins the TİP "so that we can all together reach out for hopeful days, which seem distant."

TİP now has three seats at the Parliament

Ahmet Şık, in a statement on May 4, 2020, announced his resignation from the HDP "on the grounds that a mentality which was dominant in the party administration was insisting on its attitude against democratic practices contrary to the HDP's power, meaning and values."

With Ahmet Şık joining the TİP, the party's seats at the Parliament has increased to three, together with Erkan Baş and Barış Atay.

TİP Chair Erkan Baş and Vice Chair Barış Atay also entered the general elections on June 24, 2018 from the HDP's list. While Baş has been elected the İstanbul MP, Atay has been elected the Hatay MP.

At a meeting also attended by the then HDP Co-Chairs Sezai Temelli and Pervin Buldan, they announced that they resigned from the HDP and joined the TİP, which meant that the TİP was represented at Turkey's Parliament for the first time after 53 years. (HA/SD)