A press conference was held at the European Parliament to talk about "HDP and elections in Turkey".

Marie Christine Vergiat, President of the Kurdish Friendship Group in the European Parliament, Julie Ward, MEP for Socialist Group, Hülya Turan on behalf of the French Communist Party delegation who went to Agri as election observer and HDP Strasbourg representative, Fayık Yağızay joined the press conference.

The President of the Kurdish Friendship Group, Marie Christine Vergiat, reminded that she has been several times to Turkey and Kurdistan, and said the Group is trying to follow closely what is happening there, which can only be described as an anti-democratic regime, where repression is on the increase as the delegations to the elections witnessed.

Vergiat stressed that despite the arrests and oppressions the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has shown a remarkable success in the elections.

Julie Ward said:

"I went to the province of Agri towards the border of Armenia with my observers’ delegation. We finally reached the electoral offices after passing through many military road check-points. We met civilian armed groups as well as armed soldiers even in the election bureau. There was a man, who was going to vote for HDP. The election officers told him he had to go to another polling station to cast his vote. We were prevented from entering. I have been part of election delegations in many countries, but can't remember such a treatment."

Asked how the relations with Turkey will be after this election, Ward replied: "Turkey is not only the AKP and the state. It is also the HDP and the Kurdish people. It is NGOs and democratic Turkish people. We will continue to side with democratic struggle for freedom."

Hülya Turan stated that:

"Our delegation consisted of Christine Prunaud, Senator for the Côtes d'Armor, Pascal Torre of the PCF (French Communist Party). We went to three villages and we did not observe serious obstacles and fraud in the three places we went to except for the civilian armed men all over and constant military controls. Things got worse in Agri. Soldiers stopped us and wanted to hold on to our passports. They said we were in a region under State of Emergency and they took us into custody. Of course we were in constant contact with the French Consulate. We were released just after the polling stations closed."

HDP Strasbourg Representative Fayık Yağızay made the following statement:

"Despite having over 10 thousand of our members in prison, including our former co-chairs, our presidential candidate, deputies, municipality co-mayors, we contested this election and got close to 12 percent of the vote. As HDP we are committed to continuing our struggle in accordance with our democratic values ​​and principles and we will struggle together with our friends who share the same values."