Kışanak writes from the prison 'as a socialist': 'Nobody has the right to waste a single vote'

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Gülten Kışanak, former MP and former Co-Mayor of the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality wrote an article, "As a socialist," for the Yeni Yaşam daily newspaper. She called all political groups in the Labor and Freedom Alliance to give the correct decision and warned the Worker's Party of Turkey (TİP) which has decided to compete inside the alliance, but under its own lists, in the parliamentary elections. Kışanak said, "nobody has the right to waste even a single vote." 

Elected the Co-Mayor of Diyarbakır in 2014, and arrested in 2016 after being charged with being a member of the outlawed PKK, Kışanak is in prison for seven years. 

The Labor and Freedom Alliance is made up of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), the socialist and labor groups inside the party, and those that are in the alliance which was formed last year.

Worker's Party of Turkey (TİP), one of the political parties in the alliance, decided to compete under its own lists in the parliamentary elections, while all others will be competing under a joint list.

With its swing vote in hand, the Labor and Freedom Alliance decided not to put up a candidate in the presidential elections in the May 14 elections where the incumbent President Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the joint candidate of the Nation Alliance of six opposition parties are the two strong candidates. 

"We want to be a part of the solution"

Under these conditions, the imprisoned politician wrote, "That the Labor and Freedom Alliance has not negotiated with the Nation Alliance on the presidency, etc. is an issue that should be well understood and explained. The Labor and Freedom Alliance has shown that they did not want to be a part of the power, but that they want to be a part of the solution." 

"Society has huge, accumulated problems that need to be solved urgently. The people's will that the Labor and Freedom Alliance will bring to the Parliament will be a key to the solution of the problems. This is beyond argument," wrote Kışanak.

"So, in brief, all political structures constituting the alliance have a responsibility. The advantages of competing under a single list are known. It is not necessary to tell them again. Our peoples expect all political structures that constitute the alliance to think realistically, justly, and thinking about the benefit of the whole society and to compete in the elections under a single list. It is time to give the correct decision now, evaluating all past "if only"s, in order not to say "if only" when the election results are announced."

"History is not written with if only's"

"Unfortunately, history is not written with "if only"s. Our peoples expect success from us in order to change history. May the wind be at our backs." 

Kışanak then said, "I had written the above without knowing the developments outside. When I watched the TİP president Erkan Baş on TV, it was necessary to add a few sentences to it. It seems that the Labor and Freedom Alliance is not an election alliance. It does not have a joint presidential candidate. If it is not going to have a joint election list either, it is not an election alliance anymore.

"As a socialist"

"Erkan Baş is saying that they will be receiving many votes now since there is not going to be a concern related to the electoral threshold. Yes, being within the alliance eliminates the seven percent threshold for TİP, however, the Kurds made the threshold meaningless through years of struggle and heavy cost. It was HDP who blew down the threshold in the June 7 [2015] elections.

As a socialist Kurdish woman who resisted the oppression of the September 12 [1980] fascist coup, and who continues to pay a price for the last 7 years in prison, I wish to remind that HDP and the Green and Left Party to enter the elections, is the joint party of the Kurdish socialists, patriots, and the socialist movement of Turkey.

"So TİP is not the only socialist party in the parliament. Taking these facts into account, I want to underline that nobody has the right to waste even a single vote. I wish success to our people," wrote Gülten Kışanak from the Kocaeli F-Type Prison. (TY/PE)