Our party is organizing a two-track democracy march to Ankara, beginning from the western province of Edirne and the southeastern province of Hakkari, in response to the revocation of the parliamentary status of our MPs Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları and the Erdoğan-AKP regime's continuing crackdown on our party and the opposition in general.
As part of a broader campaign titled “The Democratic Struggle Program”, this march aims to meet with different sections of society and deliver their demands to Ankara. The march will start on June 15 from Hakkari and Edirne and end in Ankara on June 20.
During the march, there will be meetings with NGOs, voters and friends and comrades in the struggle for democracy. Our march will end in the capital Ankara on June 20.
In Silivri and Edirne, our co-chair Buldan gave speeches ahead of the march and briefly said the following:
They will never be able to make us take a step back from our resolute march. We are not this many. We are thousands, millions. You have made undemocratic decisions in violation of the Constitution by banning entries and exits to many cities. The measures you have taken to prevent HDP from meeting with the people will not prevent us from coming together with our people.
There are representatives of millions [of people] in Edirne. In many prisons, especially in Edirne, there are members of parliament and co-mayors who represent millions. Today, this democratic march against the coup, is a march for all our friends in prisons, especially for Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.
This march is not only for Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ. It is about living together with freedom, democracy and peace. The peace, Demirtaş, Yüksekdağ are not to be feared this much. They are the will of the millions. This march is also for Osman Kavala. It is for millions of people who were subjected to starvation, poverty and misery by the AKP government. This march will continue. It will continue until peace, freedoms and democracy come to this country.
Kurds, Alevis, Armenians, women, and youths do have problems in this country. But the biggest problem is the AKP government itself. AKP’s prohibitive mentality and its style of government have become the biggest problem.
Our march did not start today and will not end tomorrow. We have been marching for a long time and we will continue to march until democracy, peace and justice prevail in Turkey, and our imprisoned comrades and friends are all set free.
We are the voice of the persecuted millions, we do not speak on behalf of a single community. HDP will not compromise or bow down in this long march. Our march aims to bring together the rivers of Hakkari and Edirne, Great Zap and Meriç.
15 June 2020