HDP's Press release on the elections results

Co-chairs of the HDP Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdag gave a press conference during which they evaluated the results of today’s parliamentary elections. The co-chair Figen Yüksekdag said the HDP had conducted their campaign in completely unbalanced conditions and summarized the events of the last five months in Turkey, where more than 258 civilians were killed by military forces in the Kurdish cities and where more than 190 attacks against the headquarters of the HDP took place. She said those events were part of a strategy of the ruling party, the AKP, to let the HDP below the 10% threshold, but that still, the HDP had managed to become the third political force in Turkey. She also said that despite all these difficulties, the peoples of Turkey had reached a victory and thanked all those who came out to vote, praising the efforts of those who have worked hard in this election day and remembering all friends who lost their lives in the name of democracy. Demirtas said:“The high turnout of HDP voters is a very positive element. I would like to thank, on behalf the HDP, all the voters who went to the polls. We have always respected the choice of the voters, and wait in return that our choices are also respected.Today’s elections were not fair elections. You should know that we got 11% of votes in a context of war, without even having been able to campaign. We have not led an electoral campaign in order to protect our people.
The AKP government and the president of Turkey had a single objective: to take us below the 10% threshold.
If another party had suffered the same repressive methods that those imposed on us until now, they would have disappeared from the political scene. Despite those repressive and brutal policies, we thank our people who have enabled us to become currently the third political party in Turkey. We lost one million votes, but we remain a party that has managed to stand up against fascism.
It is clear that we will begin our work with very large problems, but we will be on the side of righteous government actions, and will be against its repressive actions.
There is no need for anyone to be afraid, because we are here, and we will continue to resist together.
We will continue to defend our criteria over a new constitution and over a political solution of the Kurdish question.
We will continue to form a positive opposition and we will try to solve people’s problem through our political activity.
When we had 22 members, at the time, we had already shown our determination. Today we are the third party, and we will continue with the same determination. Today’s victory is that of all those who lost their lives in this fight. But we would have liked to see them alive rather than overcome this barrier.
The goal of the AKP government was to leave us below the 10% threshold, and for that they have resorted to electoral fraud. But we managed to stay above the 10% despite these repressive and brutal attempts. “