Violation of rights in Turkish elections increases the challenges of HDP

As it has been announced that the elections in Türkiye will take place on May 14, debates about the lack of equity in the electoral process have already begun. The party most affected by this inequality is the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which stands out with its defense of the rights of the Kurdish people. The right to conditions that will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature, which is specified in the article on the right to free elections in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which is also ratified by the Turkish state, does not apply to the HDP in particular. The Turkish state also disregards many of the rights defined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is a human rights treaty adopted by the UN. While the HDP continues its legal struggle against the violations of rights that have been going on for years, on the other hand, it is preparing for the elections under limited conditions. To compile the significant questions regarding the crackdown on HDP:
Censorship and Restrictions
The Council of Europe states that freedom of the media and protection of the right to information is essential for a democratic and fair electoral process. However, the public broadcaster TRT and the mainstream media violate the principle of electoral impartiality by laying an embargo on the HDP. They do not broadcast HDP’s election advertisements, they hardly invite deputies to their live broadcast programs, and they don’t consult party representatives to verify news containing allegations that bind the party. HDP deputy Mahmut Togrul summarized this matter in the parliament with the following words: “The AKP government has completely taken the media under its control. There is only one voice in the media right now. For example, all the headlines of the daily mainstream newspapers are the same.”
Extortion, dismissals, and closure case
The HDP, which is the second-largest opposition party with 56 deputies in the parliament, is the subject of a closure case. While the decision to freeze the party’s bank account as a result of the case has been lifted on March 9, the closure process is still ongoing. With the investigation conducted to close the party, trustees were appointed by the Ministry of Interior in 48 of the 65 municipalities that HDP won in the 2019 municipal elections. Considering the unlawful judgments as a political genocide operation, the HDP’s group vice chairperson Meral Danis Bestas said the following about the closure case in a press statement in the parliament: “This is a story of neutralizing the opposition. AKP has already severed all ties with the law. Their stories are lies, deception, and conspiracy. We will answer most strongly on May 14.”
Detention and confinement
Former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ have been in detention since November 2016. Although each State Party should comply with the ECHR’s decision, Erdoğan rejected the ruling of the ECHR to immediately release Demirtaş. According to the report prepared by the HDP in December 2019, 15,530 people have been detained in operations against the party since 2015, and 6 thousand people, including 750 members and administrators, were arrested. Figen Yüksekdağ reacted to arbitrary detentions with these words while defending herself in court: “The fact that the ECHR decision has not been implemented is not a new case for Türkiye. It is no longer a judicial problem; it has become the country’s problem. It has become a political obstinacy. You showed us an example of black comedy. We felt pity for the legal system, and that pity remains.”
Lifting immunity
In 2016, the immunity of dozens of HDP deputies was lifted. In February 2022, the ECHR ruled that Turkey violated the freedom of expression by lifting the parliamentary immunity of HDP deputies and prosecuting them. However, Erdoğan did not take the necessary steps after this binding decision. Moreover, new names were added to the list of deputies whose immunity was lifted. Last year, the legislative immunity of HDP Deputy Semra Güzel was also lifted. Months after that, she was stripped of her parliamentary seat. HDP deputy Rüştü Tiryaki said the following in an interview he gave to the Evrensel newspaper:
“A large part of society considers this as a blow to democratic politics. This is how society reads this process. Lifting immunity and stripping MPs of their status have a much more serious wound in the memory of Kurds. Since the Democracy Party (DEP), Kurds see this process as an attack on their will.”
Police violence and repression
HDP voters, members, and deputies have been subjected to police violence countless times. Even when the HDP gathered to make a press statement in front of its headquarters, it was attacked by the police. One of the recent examples of police violence against a deputy was last year; during a protest, the police broke the leg of HDP MP Habip Eksik. HDP deputy Musa Piroglu, who was attacked by the police in his wheelchair despite being disabled, talked to the newspaper Umut about the increasing violence: “This shows the point where resentment, rudeness, and recklessness have reached. It also shows the policy of impunity behind this rudeness. The press is in such an open space in front of everyone. If the police can carry out this attack in such an open space in front of everyone, in the center of Istanbul, it is because they have the assurance that it will go unpunished.”
Discrimination of other electoral parties
HDP, which has great support from the Kurdish community and has many Kurdish deputies, is also subject to discrimination in the parliament. The Chairperson of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of the AKP, reiterated his call for the closure of HDP frequently, accusing the HDP of being engaged in ‘terrorism’. Other right-wing parties demonstrate that they are not open to any kind of dialogue with the HDP. Recently, the Chairwoman of the IYI (Good) Party Meral Akşener firmly stated that the HDP will never be brought to the table of the opposition bloc. A few days after her statement, Selahattin Demirtaş published an open letter he wrote to Meral Akşener. One of the questions in the letter, which was in response to the attitudes excluding the HDP, was as follows: “Although HDP declared that it does not make any demands other than democratic principles, you said ‘CHP can establish a dialogue with HDP, but no concessions can be made and their demands cannot be brought to this table.’ Do you see the demands for democratization as concessions?”