Selahattin Demirtas, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), who has been in jail since November 2016 on terrorism-related charges, has said that the AKP-MHP bloc, also referred to as the People’s Alliance, will be severely punished in the upcoming local elections.
The People’s Alliance was formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) as a coalition in the upcoming local elections on March 31.
Answering questions by the independent online media platform Bianet, in a letter on Monday, Demirtas said that people will “severely punish” the AKP-MHP bloc in the local elections.
“Results of the local elections will be determined by the deterioration in [Turkey’s] economy as well as democracy,” Demirtas said, when asked to comment on the upcoming election results.
Evaluating Turkey’s political atmosphere on the eve of the elections, the pro-Kurdish leader said that manipulative discourse and black propaganda paved the way for a sharply polarized society.
“Politics and ethics are being trampled on during election campaigns, now more than ever. This is not how politics is done. What part of lying, slandering, threatening and insulting others in order to receive more votes is politics? These kinds of actions are scandalous and vile,” Demirtas said, adding that the greater part of society is now sick and tired of these politics based on lies and polarization.
When asked about the mainstream media in Turkey, Demirtas said: “There is no such thing as mainstream media anymore. They are all at the bottom of a [pro-government] pool, or a sewer for that matter.”
Turkey’s media outlets financed by the ruling AK Party government’s cronies that unequivocally support the government have been called “pool media” by the opposition.
“These outlets will die away eventually, having destroyed the means to establish a functional and powerful media for many years to come,” Demirtas said further.
The pro-Kurdish leader also mentioned hunger strikers who have been demanding an end to the isolation of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“The ongoing hunger strikes underline a vital demand. However, they can’t have a serious impact on Turkey’s agenda due to polarization and political tension in the current election atmosphere of the country. It is well-known that the current government in power does not care about establishing peace [in the country]. But if the people raise their voices against [its] war policy, no politicians can overlook these [demands].”
Demirtas stated that he hopes the hunger strikes will show positive results before someone else passes away.
HDP MP Leyla Guven initiated “a partial and indefinite hunger strike” on November 7, 2018, calling for the lifting of what she calls the isolation of Ocalan by the Turkish government.
Four inmates committed suicide in March for the same cause, after participation in the strike spread among Kurdish inmates across Turkey, as well as among HDP lawmakers.
Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence since 1999, has been held mostly in solitary confinement in Imrali, an island prison in the Marmara Sea, according to media reports. He has not been allowed to see his lawyers since July 27, 2011.
He has also been barred from meeting with HDP lawmakers since April 2015, when the peace process that was aiming to end the decades-long conflict between governing AKP and PKK failed.
PKK, an insurgent group seeking self-rule in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, is deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara.
The post AKP-MHP bloc to be “severely punished” in local elections, jailed pro-Kurdish leader says appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/03/27/akp-mhp-bloc-to-be-severely-punished-in-local-elections-jailed-pro-kurdish-leader-says/
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