ANKARA – Responding to the attempts of hindering their march, HDP Co- Vice President Alican Önlü said “Without letting the provocation attempts succeed, we will continue our march”. Önlü has also announced that they will announce the second phase in their schedule of planned events.

Alican Önlü, the Co-Vice President of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) gave response to the attempts of hindering and restraining of the march that his party announced to begin by June 15 with the slogan of “March for democracy Against the Coup”. As reported earlier, the march will start from Edirne and Hakkari provinces, continue with statements for the press and welcoming ceremonies in the provinces along the route and will end in the capital city of Ankara.  “Since the government fears that the march we begin can spread all over the country, they try to manipulate our march with allegations on shaky ground,” told Önlü as he underlined that the decisions regarding the prohibition and restriction of their march are against the constitution of Turkey.

‘WE PROTECT THE HEALTH OF THE COMMUNITY BETTER’

Emphasizing that the reasons of restrictions presented by the governors are based on allegations with no solid ground, Önlü said “As for the community health that they serve as the ground for their decision, we, the ones who struggle protect it better. The ones who sent the workers and laborers to the factories with no measures taken to protect their lives, cannot protect the health of the community. The government who steals all cannot protect the public health. The AKP Vice President, who told that ‘We will turn the crisis into an opportunity’, cannot protect the public health as much as we do.”

‘EVEN THE CONSTITUTION OF ’82 IS NOT SUFFICIENT FOR THEM’

Stating that they show the laws as ground for the prohibitions, Önlü reminded that all the citizens in Turkey have the right to march peacefully, make press statements and use their democratic rights of expression declared by the constitution. Saying “They have reached such a level that even the fascist constitution of ’82 is not sufficient for them,” Önlü continued his statement as follows: “It is not such a march that will go for days. What we say the opposition composed of the peoples of Turkey and the democratic forces cannot be limited to the classical means of struggle anymore. That is why we march against this government together with all the opposition forces. Our march has already begun by June 1. We, in fact, brought this idea of democracy march into being and announced our program for democracy with our 'Democratic Attitude Document' that we released by June 1. After our statement, our party already hit the streets. Our central executive board, our local administrators and our co-chairs already meet with the public. However, while doing this, we have said that we will also make a statement in Ankara. Therefore, the march involves all the fieldwork we have been doing already. In other words, the march is a way to set off a common struggle ground together with all segments who have an objection.”

‘OUR MARCH HAS BEGUN AND IT WILL CONTINUE’

Stating that their march has already begun with their attitude document, Önlü stated that they will not change their schedule despite the restriction orders and they will arrive in Ankara to make their statement. Önlü ended his statements as follows: “Without letting the provocation attempts succeed, we will continue our march. We determined our party policy based on two parts. One is Kurdistan, the other is Turkey. Therefore, we will continue the schedule with our statements in Hakkari and Edirne. We will collect the suggestions of all the opposition forces and announce these in our statement in Ankara. Not only that, but also we will continue our march for democracy and for labor via the second phase.  We will protect the public health as we continue our march taking all the necessary health measures. After the statement, we will declare in Ankara, we will schedule the second phase. This time, we will not being our march alone, but together with all the democratic forces. We will plan the new period taking suggestions and critiques of the people into account.”