Temelli spoke about recent developments and, pointing to the regional conference, said: “Our regional conferences point to an important process. This organizing effort that we have put forth is also important to the extent that it showcases our strength to intervene with politics in this process.”

WE HAVE A STRONG IDEOLOGY

Temelli stressed that HDP’s organizing efforts are in fact to organize an ideology: “The efforts are geared towards socializing this ideology. We have a strong ideology, and with this we have put our mark on Turkey’s politics as the tradition that was able to make the strongest intervention.”

LET’S ENGAGE IN POLITICS EVERYWHERE

Temelli called for engagement in politics everywhere: “Wherever we are, in our neighborhoods, in our streets, let’s engage in politics wherever we are. Let’s never delegate our right to engage in politics to anybody. We saw where Turkey was dragged to when we do in the last 4 years.”

WE STOPPED THE COURSE 

Temelli said in the June 23 Istanbul elections the HDP stopped the course of events in the dark times of Turkey: “What we did with June 23 was to invite people back into politics. That is what we did.”
“It was a dire effort that required a lot of sacrifice but we did it,” said Temelli: “Behind our success was our decades-long struggle and our strong ideology.”
Temelli said Turkey was stuck in a rut of unlawfulness and injustice for four full years, and pointed to the numerous rights violations and injustices from the isolation to the arrest of journalists and MPs. 

BREAKING THE ISOLATION WAS A CRITICAL MOVE

Temelli spoke about the isolation imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan and said: “It was necessary to break this isolation, breaking the isolation was a critical move.”
Temelli said, “Whether people voted for us or not, we created something that goes beyond that,” and continued to stress the following:

THERE WERE A FEW STEPS LEFT TO FULLY INSTITUTIONALIZE FASCISM

“This government and those who gathered around them tried to institutionalize fascism in this country for 4 years. There were just a few steps left until they prevailed. It was important to object to just that, to stand against them and to organize this objection. The fight against fascism is important in this aspect.”