HDP keeps two-term limit, prepares to name 20 new executives
The HDP decided during a Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting on Feb. 13 not to amend an internal regulation that limits the party executives to two consecutive terms in their positions. Accordingly, 20 current MYK members will not be able to run for a seat in the upcoming party congress set to take place on Feb. 23.
Duvar English
Turkey's Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has decided to maintain a two-term limit for its executive members. Accordingly, 20 members of the Central Executive Board (MYK) will be replaced and will be instead assigned to party commissions, Mezopotamya news agency reported, citing sources from the HDP.
The decision was taken during a party MYK meeting on Feb. 13. Among the names who will be replaced in the MYK are party spokesperson Günay Kubilay, Hişyar Özsoy, deputy co-chair responsible for foreign affairs, and Azad Barış, deputy co-chair responsible for press and propaganda.
The new members of the MYK will be elected during the party's 4th Ordinary Congress set to take place on Feb. 23 in the capital Ankara.
The two-term limit will also be also maintained for other executive positions, including members of the Party Council (PM). In the meantime, the party is trying to finalize its new list of the Party Council and is said to have asked Onur Hamzaoğlu, former spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Congress (HDK) -- a country-wide coalition platform of left-wing forces in Turkey that contains around thirty organizations, including political parties and trade unions – to be in the new Party Council.
HDP co-chairs Pervil Buldan and Sezai Temelli are expected to continue in the party's leadership. They were elected as the party co-chairs at the 3rd Ordinary Congress on Feb. 11, 2018.
As for the slogan of the 4th Grand Ordinary Congress, the phrases of “We are marching towards the rulership” and “We are enlarging the hope” have come to the foreground.
Apart from the upcoming congress, the Feb. 13-dated MYK meeting also discussed the government's policies in Syria.
The meeting reportedly emphasized that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) policies was dragging the war-struck country into a “deadlock” and “policies of war and invasion do not produce a solution.”
Another issue that was discussed during the MYK meeting was the party's demand that Turkish authorities end the isolation of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is held on a small island in the Marmara Sea called İmralı.