ANKARA - HDP Co-Chair Pervin Buldan reacted to the detention of TJA activists and journalists, saying, “These operations against women and democratic politics; are unlawful, political, tyranny, a coup and misogyny."

Speaking on her party's group meeting, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Pervin Buldan reacted to the detention of woman activists, including Free Women's Movement (TJA) spokesperson Ayşe Gökkan and journalist Ayşe Güney. "These operations against women and democratic politics; are unlawful, political, tyranny, a coup and misogyny. I strongly condemn these operations. We know it very well what these operations aim; to stop the women's struggle of equality and freedom, to set the organization of women back, to create barriers in fron of democratic politics, to bully and intimidate the people," said Buldan.

'THEY WILL NOT SUCCEED'

"Whatever they would do they will not succeed. They will get no results. They will never withhold the women and our people from the struggle. We have never bowed to the misogynist policies of the government and we will never do so. Women will continue to resist in all areas of life," said Buldan emphasizing that the Turkish government is afraid of the democratic struggle of the women.

'PEOPLE WANT BREAD AND JOB'

Buldan raised a call to the government, "All our woman friends detained should be released and this unlawfulness must stop. The problems and crises that the people face deepen every day. Unemployment, poverty, the struggle to earn a living are on top of the agenda of the people. People on the street want bread and job, want to sustain an honorable and humanly life, want a governance who secures their future and threats everyone as equals."

'AKP MEANS CORRUPTION, POVERTY, BAN'

Stating that the government is only interested in their own profit Buldan said, "During their rule they have created 25-million poor, millions of unemployed. The number of the young people who have lost their hope in a future with a job and bread has increased to 1 million 300 thousand. As AKP (Justice and Development Party led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) gets rich, the society gets poorer. Workers, laborers, retired, shopkeepers, farmers, producers bleed as the gap of the inequality of income deepens every day in the corrupt system they built. Let us remember; what did AKP say when they first came to power? They said they would struggle against corruption, poverty and ban. They did not keep their promise. They have never struggle, but just ate! Now the people struggle against their corruption, their poverty and their bans.

DEBATE ON HAGIA SOPHIA

People look for a job and demand bread, but they show them Hagia Sophia. People chant for justice, but they talk about conquer. They do not hesitate to use such a historical legacy like Hagia Sophia and the beliefs of people for their politics. They turned this issue into a political show. Hagia Sophia was opened to Muslim prayer, but when will you open the gates of justice, welfare and peace to the people? When will you open the gates of people's bread and butter for the public?"

'AYTAÇ VE ÜNSAL SHOULD BE RELEASED'

Speaking on the imprisoned lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, who have been on death fast, Buldan stated that the health conditions of both lawyers is on the critical stage, they should be immediately released and their demand for a fair trial should be met.

'GOVERNMENT NOW TARGETS SOCIAL MEDIA'

Buldan continued her statements as follows: "Government now targets social media. They have closed down the opponent media through statutory decrees (known as “KHK” in Turkish) after the July 15 (coup attempt). They have built an army of 'trolls'. Now that they have seen that citizens engage in social media to express their opposition and they can't cope with this, they want to destroy social media. The way things are, they would soon ban the printing press. Because they don't want any contradictory voice. They are the enemies to the goddess of justice, to the bird of Twitter, to Netflix. They are against the contemporary age, the progress, the enlightenment.

WE WON'T BACK DOWN FROM İSTANBUL CONVENTION

They are also against the İstanbul Convention, which is an achievement of women that cannot be lost. They discuss withdrawing from the convention. Ignoring the Istanbul Convention is an antiquated mentality. It is to impose darkness. They aim at destroying the women's achievements, protecting their patriarchal power from the women. In such a conjuncture where at least three women are killed a day, trying to destroy women's achievements such as İstanbul Convention instead of taking steps to ensure women's lives is nothing but misogyny. You can impose the fascism convention, but women will never step back from the Istanbul Convention and struggle convention.

POLITICAL THEFT ON LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS

Our Co-Mayor of Ağrı Diyadin Municipality was detained with police brutality and rear handcuffing and a trustee was appointed for her place unlawfully. This bullying is a process by which AKP seizes local administrations that it cannot win through elections with political theft. There is a special law applied in the region of Kurdish cities. They are the enemies of HDP, enemies of Kurds, enemies of women, enemies of the young, enemies of the people, enemies of the nature. As long as there is the Co-Chair system the understanding of monopoly and 'one man' cannot feel comfortable. Our co-mayors do not steal as they are not corrupted as AKP's trustees. This is why AKP is so uncomfortable with them. The 50 municipalities they appointed trustees have been the centers of corruption and theft. They have built a wheel of corruption there. Of course, they will give the account of all these with law and democracy.

DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLE PROGRAMME

We started the second phase of our Democratic Struggle program with a statement we made in Parliament last week. In the first stage, we will bring the demand for democracy, which grows like a snowball, together with our demands for peace, justice, labor, equality and future. We will meet with young people and listen to them, and we will win young on this path we started young. We will grow our struggle by learning from young people. We will be in the factories, in the fields. We will be with the workers who break their sweat to earn their bread; we will be with the seasonal farmworkers who are exploited."