HDP’s presidential candidate Demirtas vows to end one-man rule in Turkey

Selahattin Demirtaş, the presidential candidate of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), vows to end the one-man rule in Turkey on Monday.

The election manifesto of Demirtaş for June 24 elections has been released at a meeting in Ankara. In the manifesto, Demirtaş said the President will not have ultra authorities and will realize a plan for urgent transition to democracy. He promised a country without polarization that should be dominated by love and tolerance, where people will be able to live their ways of life freely.

The manifesto by Demirtaş also promised the establishment of a system of government empowered with the participation of all circles of the society. He said that “We are the voice of not monism but pluralism. We say we are here against a regime that declares everyone not on its side criminal and works for its own existence alone. We are at the turning point of ending a 16-year-old destruction at the ballot box! Hand to hand for a new beginning, we will change the monist, repressive, robbing, discriminative and aggressive one-man rule with YOU.”

According to a report by pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency (ANF), Demirtaş said that “YOU are the producer, and YOU will be the ruler,” in his manifesto which listed the following promises in order to heal the social wounds:

“We will end the State of Emergency in the soonest time.

“We will make compensations for the damage caused by the State of Emergency and statutory decrees, ensure the reinstatment of those unlawfully dismissed.

“We will put an end to the atrocity suffered in prisons and make the necessary arrangements against unjust treatment they are subjected to, and ensure the immediate release of all sick prisoners.

“We will end the trustee system that bases on usurping the people’s will and right to vote, and ensure that dismissed mayors turn back to duty.

“By guaranteeing democracy, we will relieve the ecenomy. From the perspective of an economy based on meeting social needs, we will extend the producers’ supervision on economic relations.

“The Palace allocated to one man will be emptied.

“We will build our foreign policy on the perspective of resolving the current problems through dialogue and peaceful ways and methods.

“We will re-arrange the structure of High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, remove the Minister of Justice from the Council, end the political pressure on judges and prosecutors and maket he Council autonomous. The judiciary will be freed of orders of politics.

“We will abolish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and secure the academic, scientific and administrative autonomy of universities.

“We will work for the abolishment of coup product structures and arrangements like National Security Council and Anti-Terror Law.

“We will free legistation and judiciary of the pressure of execution.

“We will accomplish the program of urgent transition to democracy.

“The inclusive parliamentary system we will form will be the assurance of not one single person but OURS. We will return authorities like the right to legistation, inspection and budget that have been granted to the President’s Office to the parliament through Urgent Transition to Democracy Program. We will build a strong and pluralist parliamentary system by overcoming the deadlocks created by one-party majority.

“We will give priority to the solution of all social issues.

“We will build an administrative system based on the equal participation of women.

“We will legalize the legitimatize the co-chairmanship system that will secure the equal representation of women at all levels of political parties.

“We will protect the rights of children who make up one third of Turkey’s population. We will ensure a happy, honorable and peaceful life for every single children.

“We will solve the Kurdish question with the perspective that a permanent peace is the only way to ensure welfare and tranquility fort he peoples of Turkey. We will end violence and conflict with an honorable peace.

“We will end the pressures on all the oppressed and marginalized identities, belief and cultural groups and gender identity.

“We will not let the burden of economic crisis be laid on the people.

“We will never make concessions on the principles of free, scientific, mother-tongue, secular and libertarian education.

“We will remove all the obstacles to the people’s right to information, freedom of thought, expression, press, demonstration and organisation.

“We will bring an end to every and any construction that causes ecological destruction and threatens the nature and society. We will protect forests, shores, pastures, agricultural fields, protected areas, cultural and historical heritage.

“I will be the president to end the superpresidential regime. Once the process is over, my authorities will also be restricted. The President’s Office will turn into a representative authority for social reconciliation.

“We are the peoples. With our identities, beliefs, languages and cultures, WE are this country.

“We are those who believe in the future of this country and stand against the waste of sources, hopes, efforts and diversities to the passions of one-man rule.”

In November 2016, Demirtaş together with 12 HDP deputies were arrested on terror-related charges. Demirtaş remains in pretrial detention. The deputies face prosecution under anti-terrorism legislation after their parliamentary immunity was lifted.

The HDP is the second-largest opposition party in the Turkish Parliament. The Turkish government’s crackdown on the Kurdish political movement began in late 2016 with the arrest of high profile politicians, including the party’s then co-chairs, Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, which led to the detention of at least 5,000 members of the HDP, including 80 mayors.

Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast. There are currently nine HDP deputies behind bars. The developments have attracted widespread criticism from the region and Western countries.

Turkish authorities had conducted direct talks with Abdullah Öcalan, jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for several years until a truce in effect collapsed in the summer of 2015. Since then, there have been heavy clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces.

More than 40,000 people, including 5,500 security force members, have been killed in four decades of fighting between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU. Over 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including a number of women and children, have been killed since July 2015 alone, when the Turkish government and the PKK resumed the armed struggle.

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