HDP co-chair angry at being left out of inter-party meets

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

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Political reconciliation cannot be created by excluding the will of some 6 million citizen, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ has said, lashing out at the ruling and other opposition parties which have reached a common ground of solidarity against the July 15 coup attempt with the initiative of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

Saying that it was HDP which had made the first call for a leaders’ summit in the wake of the coup attempt, Yüksekdağ, during her party’s weekly group meeting, said the party was being excluded from the recent inter-party meetings.

“All meetings, summits formed were made with political actors other than the HDP. If I say summit, do not get me wrong. The highest summit they can reach is the [presidential] palace, there is nowhere beyond it. They are trying to create reconciliation by ignoring us, the will of some 6 million citizens. They will not succeed. We do not disappear when they ignore us,” said Yüksekdağ.

The HDP co-chair also argued that all regulations carried out by distancing the country from a democratic method and mentality would pave the way for another coup, referring to the state of emergency that was put in force by the government after the failed coup bid.    

“By arranging the military for themselves, by replacing Hakkari’s and Şırnak’s provincial status with Yüksekova and Cizre, by reshaping the state institutions according to their will, they cannot change reality,” said Yüksekdağ, adding that they believed it was a right move to put the army under political rule but civil politics should also be put under democracy and tied to a “democratic program.”  

Yüksekdağ also said the democratic resistance against coups started before the night of July 15. 

“We have learned to fight against thousands of pro-coup methods by experiencing it. By relying on our own power, we will not give in to the state of emergency regime that is imposed on us under the name of an anti-coup stance and to the palace coup,” said Yüksekdağ. 

“Things which have occurred since the July 15 coup attempt have not removed this ground for coups, this coup politics, yet. The political government does not differentiate from the coup supporters who claim to fight against coups in terms of methods and political mentality,” added Yüksekdağ.