In support to HDP and a democratic future for Turkey

European Green Party: Press Release

13th March 2023

The Turkish Government’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies are unacceptable. Attempts to curtail democratic opposition parties and civil society have no space in modern democracies. We stand in full solidarity with HDP and Turkish civil society. Turkish citizens deserve a democratic and pluralistic country where people can live in freedom, justice, and quality.

HDP has been consistently singled out for standing up for Kurdish rights and has already faced the arrest and imprisonment of thousands of its members and dozens of its local officials, as well as the freezing of its bank account.

The political motivated trial against HDP, Turkish parliament’s third largest party, which might lead to its ban from Turkish political life, ahead of the general elections in May 2023, is the culmination of the government’s clampdown on political freedoms and dissent.

We call on the Turkish Constitutional Court to finally drop these fabricated charges against HDP and allow it to fully play its role as a democratic actor in Turkey.

END

Mélanie Vogel, co-chair of the European Green Party and French Senator  

Vula Tsetsi, committee member of the European Green Party 

Mina Jack Tolu, committee member of the European Green Party