Jailed HDP co-leader calls for support for main opposition CHP’s justice congress

ANKARA

REUTERS photo

Imprisoned Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has called on his party to participate in the “justice congress” that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is set to hold late August. 

“All democratic forces in Turkey should participate in the congress despite the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP’s efforts to divide it,” Demirtaş told daily Evrensel on Aug. 7. 

The CHP is set to hold a congress between Aug. 26 and 30 at the western province of Çanakkale in a bid to provide a space where opposition groups in the society can gather to voice their concerns about the current record of justice in Turkey. 

CHP officials emphasize the congress will not be held under the banner of any political party, inviting “everybody who has criticisms toward the current state of justice in Turkey” to the meeting. 

“We have to be able to tell those who voted for the AKP in the past but no longer wish to vote for them about why they should vote for the democratic front. We have to state what we want to do in a clear and open manner, in other words, we have to prepare a basic program,” he told Evrensel in the Edirne F-Type prison, where he is currently being held in jail. 

Demirtaş has been in prison since November 2016 on terror-related charges.  

A total of 9 HDP lawmakers and the party’s former co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ are currently under arrest and face hundreds of years in prison on terror charges.