Selahattin Demirtaş: The only way out for Turkey is snap elections

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Held in the Edirne Type F Prison in northwestern Turkey since November 2016, former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has made a call for snap elections in Turkey.

In a series of messages shared on his Twitter account on Friday (November 19), Selahattin Demirtaş raised concerns that the country is being very poorly governed, poverty is increasing with each passing day and the only way out of this situation is to hold snap elections:

"What possibly could the society of Turkey has done to deserve this, except for voting for the wrong person in the last election? Unfortunately, the situation of the public is very bad and poverty is turning into extreme poverty with each passing day. There is only one way out: Snap election.

"Turkey is not a poor country. It is just being very poorly governed. It is luckily in your power to make things better. The most urgent thing you are supposed to do is to want snap elections and to teach a lesson at the ballot box to those who have sold the country. Afterwards, you will be surprised when you see how fast things are getting better. Election, right now."

Selahattin Demirtaş also argued that the government is intentionally causing the Turkish Lira (TRY) to lose its value so that the richness of Turkey under and above the ground as well as the elbow grease of workers and farmers can be purchased by foreigners for free:

"What they aim is to ensure that some foreign exchange enters the country. It is called selling the homeland and is done by Turkish nationalists."

Raising concerns that millions of people are so poor that they wait in lines for hours to buy cheap bread, Demirtaş has cited the minimum wage in Germany as an example: "In fact, a citizen of Germany earning minimum wage can buy the whole people's bread buffet if he or she wants it." (KÖ/SD)