Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP will enter the elections under the Green Left Party, due to the risk of being closed, sources told Gazete Duvar. While the decision will be finalized at a high-level HDP meeting on March 15, former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has shared the Green Left Party’s logo on his social media account. Duvar English reports on March 15, 2023.
Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has taken the decision to enter the elections under the umbrella of the Green Left Party since it faces the risk of being closed down with just days left to the elections.
The party will finalize its decision at the Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting that will take place on March 15, sources told Gazete Duvar. Party executives are of the opinion that even a 1 percent closure risk “cannot be taken,” which is why they are in favor of going to the elections under another party.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has recently listed the Green Left Party among the political parties that can enter the elections on May 14. All political parties need to submit their lists of deputy candidates to the YSK by April 10.
Just a day after this deadline, on April 11, HDP co-chairs Mithat Sancar and Pervin Buldan will give an oral defense to the Constitutional Court with regards to the closure case.
Following this defense, the Constitutional Court rapporteur will finalize and submit their report to the top court members. Afterwards, the court president will determine a date to discuss the closure case and give a decision.
Ahead of the HDP MYK’s March 15 meeting, jailed former party leader Selahattin Demirtaş shared the logo of the Green Left Party on social media, saying: “Please take a color printout of this image and stick it on your fridge’s door and room doors at home. No one should be left without knowing what it is; it will be necessary. Come on friends, from hand to hand.”
A state prosecutor filed the case against the HDP in March 2021, seeking the ban over alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The HDP denies such links.
The Constitutional Court accepted the indictment against the HDP in June 2021 after a years-long crackdown under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule in which thousands of HDP members have been tried on mainly terrorism-related charges.