UEL Vice-chairperson Ms. Kavvadia (SYRIZA, Greece), attending the 3rd Congress of HDP in Ankara, has expressed the Group’s solidarity with the 3rd largest party in the Parliament of Turkey, which suffers under harsh repression of Turkish authorities.
The police hindrance and the persecutions which sharply increased after the Turkish invasion of Afrin, Syria, that began on January 20 and led according to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, to more than 550 detentions, did not prevent the Congress from taking place. The meeting in Ankara was crammed with HDP Members, broadly observed by the international community which showed by its presence its solidarity and support against the unlawful repression HDP is facing.
The Congress elected Mrs Pervin Buldan and Mr Sezai Temilli as its new co-chairs, replacing its arrested co-chairs Mr. Demirtaş and Ms. Yüksekdağ. In their speeches, international guests emphasized the importance of a joint struggle for the democratic and peaceful future of Turkey.
Almost every day after the HDP’s Third Ordinary Congress on February 11, 2018, there have been detentions against HDP members and executives in many cities of Turkey, by means of emergency rule powers. This constitutes a dangerous context where governmental powers are restricting in all ways the democratic opposition before the local and presidential elections.
