“People’s collective action is the only saviour to overcome the crisis,” said Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Mithat Sancar at a rally in Turkey’s central Konya province, the third stop of his party’s series of meetings throughout the month of August.
Starting off with two rallies in the provinces of Diyarbakır (Amed) and Istanbul on 6 and 7 August, HDP’s latest campaign, entitled “We are the solution – No to war and exploitation”, moves forward to one of Turkey’s largest cities with a highly conservative population, and a sizeable migrant Kurdish community.
The main agenda in the meetings are Turkey’s ongoing economic depression and the escalating aggression against north and east Syria, illustrated by the Turkish armed forces’ recent attacks aimed at various districts under the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria (AANES).
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has resorted to cross-border military operations, Sancar said, “to make people forget the economic crisis and the crisis of injustice”.
Turkey’s problems cannot be resolved via “flashy visits in a conceited tone”, Sancar said, critiquing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent iftar dinner with pro-government representatives of the Alevi religious minority.
The HDP promises equal citizenship, and a “rejection of policies of war” in favour of peace, Sancar said.
Ahead of the rally the co-chair met with officials from Turkish opposition parties, including district chairs of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the AKP breakaway, newly-fledged opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA).
After speaking with citizens at a tea house, Sancar visited seasonal agricultural workers, the majority of whom are Kurdish, in their tents in the fields.
HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan visited western Turkey’s industrial hub Manisa on Thursday as part of “We are the Solution” meetings.
Sancar will continue the meetings on Friday in Hatay, a province at the Syrian border with Arab, Kurdish and Turkish communities.
“We are not condemned to (the government’s policies of war, or the exploitation that pushes the people into poverty and starvation). We will overcome this with the joint will of the peoples,” the HDP said in a statement following the Istanbul rally in the same series of meetings.
The meetings will continue throughout the country.
