* Photo: Twitter - HDP İstanbul Youth Assembly
Click to read the article in Turkish
A statement for the press was held in Esenyurt district in İstanbul on the second day of the Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) "March for Democracy against the Coup" yesterday (June 16).
Attended by citizens, politicians and MPs from the HDP, the statement was read out by HDP Spokesperson Saruhan Oluç.
As the police prevented the statement from being held at Esenyurt Square, it was held in nearby Doğan Araslı Boulevard.
Oluç briefly stated the following in Esenyurt:
'Attacks do not solely target the HDP'
"It is the second day of the march for democracy that we started yesterday. While one column of the march set off from Hakkari, the other set off from Edirne. We, as the Edirne column of the march, keep on working in İstanbul.
"After working in İstanbul for two more days, we will set off for Kandıra together and go to Ankara.
"The group who set off from Hakkari are now working in Van. That group will also first go to Diyarbakır, then to Ankara.
"Our march for democracy has a few meanings.
"First of all, democracy does not work in Turkey today, democratic rules and freedoms are not working.
"We had 65 municipalities, they have left only 12. They have appointed trustees to the rest in an unconstitutional manner. Similarly, three lawmakers have been stripped of MP status, again in an unconstitutional manner.
"We know that all of this is against the constitution and aims to abolish the democratic politics.
"But we do not think that these attacks and unlawful acts target only the HDP. We consider them to target the entire political and social opposition.
'Unemployment, injustice, Kurdish question...'
"For that reason, we declared a nine-point document of democratic attitude on June 1 and defined a ground for struggle.
"We have said that if we cannot form an alliance of democracy, the attacks of the government will target the entire political and social opposition. We have called on them to come and raise the struggle for democracy. It is in the power of the social opposition to stop and change the government.
"In this call, we have underlined a number of points:
"Two out of every three people are worried about jobs and daily bread; unemployment, high costs of living and inflation are on the rise. No matter how much they temper with the numbers, people know what kind of a crisis they are faced with.
"Turkey is going through a crisis of law. The inspection mechanism at the judiciary has been corrupted. The entire judiciary takes decisions as instructed by the palace. What is valid now is the law of the palace. We have to turn this into the rule of law.
"We are highly sensitive about the steps to be taken to resolve the Kurdish question and to develop a solution in dialogue. We think that a solution to be found at the parliament is indispensable for this. No problem can be solved with weapons. We can create social peace by talking to one another.
'It is seen that HDP cannot be silenced'
"We expressed these demands of ours and will keep on doing so throughout the march. Our groups will come together in Ankara on June 20 and emphsize these views one more time.
"To this day, both the opposition parties and ruling parties have seen that the HDP cannot be silenced by pressure and imprisonment.
"6 million voters, around 20 million when taken together with their families, will never bow down to this oppression.
"What we care about is to pave the way for social negotiation, reconciliation and peace by talking." (EKN/SD)
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