* Photo: HDP
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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Spokesperson Ebru Günay held her weekly press conference today (January 13). She made a call to "We defend the HDP" rally to be held in Diyarbakır on January 22.
Speaking about university student Enes Kara, Günay expressed her condolences to his family and briefly said, "In the video message that he left behind, Enes has revealed a reality of Turkey quite strikingly. He said that he had lost his joy of life. A 20-year-old university student... He was born when this government was in power, and after 20 years, he says that he has lost his joy of life. He, in fact, expresses a reality."
Commenting on the dormitories of religious communities in Turkey, which have once again come to the public agenda after the passing of Enes Kara, HDP's Ebru Günay raised concerns that "students have been condemned to the dorms of religious communities":
"The only thing this government promises society, young people, women is death, lack of a joy of life, a lack of future, hopelessness, pessimism.
University students were on the streets in this process, saying that they could not find housing. The government has terrorized them. As a result of being unable to find housing, they have been condemned to the dormitories of religious communities.
"Offering all public resources and opportunities to religious communities, the government has aggrieved students, impoverished families and deprived this country of a hopeful future."
'Authorities must answer for this'
Arguing that "these policies of the government are the murderers of Enes", Günay said, "With these antagonistic policies it pursues, by ignoring the requests and demands of students and with the state resources it has allocated to itself, the government has driven Enes to death."
Günay underlined that "the government, and more importantly, the officials of the religious community dorm where he [Enes Kara] was staying must answer for the incident as soon as possible."
Economic crisis
Further in her press conference, HDP Spokesperson Ebru Günay also talked about the price increases and the ensuing hardships faced by people in making ends meet. Günay said that "the AKP government, which collapsed in 2022, keeps on billing people for its own collapse."
Underlining that "the people of Turkey are faced with the highest price increases in the history of the country," Günay said, "I say this only about the latest price hikes: Electricity prices have been increased by 127 percent and natural gas prices have been increased by over 100 percent. And as a result of this, food prices have been increased by over 150 percent."
As noted by Ebru Günay, "the wages, pensions and student loans have been increased by 30 percent" in the meantime.
Arguing that "the government makes all of its plans according to pro-government groups, not according to pensioners, laborers, workers, students, women or poor people," Günay said that the AKP is "afraid" of calling elections as "the people are aware of the reality" and it knows that "people will call the AKP to account" and vote it out at the elections. (AS/SD)
