Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair, Sezai Temelli held a press conference at the headquarters of the party in Ankara to talk about the approaching 24 June elections.

Temelli underlined the situation of detention in which Demirtaş finds himself and said: “As you know, last week, Demirtaş's lawyers filed an appeal arguing for his release. We expect this application to be completed tomorrow. We expect a positive response. Demirtaş’s freedom is our priority”.

Indicating that the detention of Demirtaş had shadowed the legitimacy of the presidential election, Temelli added: “The other five presidential candidates are using all kind of resources and means to carry out their campaign. The fact that our candidate cannot actually access any resource or can use very limited means has clearly cast a shadow on the legitimacy of the presidential election. Demirtaş is still a member of parliament and was voted by 6 million people. Therefore he should be able to contest this election and run his campaign with no limitation”.

Other presidential candidates call for the release of Demirtaş

HDP former co-chair and Presidential candidate Demirtaş has been detained for 18 months without any law-grounded reason, said Temelli and added: “This is the source of a legitimacy crisis for Turkey. Today, if Demirtaş is released, it will be an important step, together with the scrapping of the threshold after the election. All this will pave the way to democracy in Turkey”.

Temelli continued: “The other presidential candidates called for the release of Demirtaş. These calls are very important, because they represent a step beyond the usual political behavior. They are a big contribution to the building of a culture of democracy in Turkey. We call on the presidential candidates who made this call to insist on it”.

Turkey’s candidate is Demirtaş

Temelli ended his remarks by saying that “our people have hope. And this despite the fact that we are contesting the election in a very unhealthy environment. We want Demirtaş to be free so that this hope is not dashed. This is everyone's common demand. Demirtaş is Turkey’s candidate and Turkey’s candidate must be released. We want the dark shadow over the 24 June elections to be lifted. We are calling to everyone to be sensitive”.