Painting sold for 200,000 liras in fundraising campaign for HDP
A painting that was auctioned in a fundraising campaign for the HDP has been sold for 9,900 euros (approximately 200,000 liras). The painting named “Hicret” (means Emigration) had previously drawn the attention of renowned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş’s wife Başak Demirtaş during an exhibition in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.
Ferhat Yaşar / DUVAR
Last month, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) launched a fundraising campaign after a court froze the funding the party was to receive from the Turkish Treasury during the course of the closure trial.
As part of the campaign named “Our Treasury is our People,” painter Hakan Yaşar, who has been living in Norway for the last 30 years, put one of his paintings on auction. The painting named “Hicret” (means Emigration) had previously drawn the attention of renowned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş’s wife Başak Demirtaş during an exhibition in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.
The painting was sold for 9,900 euros (approximately 200,000 Turkish liras) to an executive from the European Alevi Organization. The auction starting price was 6,000 dollars.
The buyer, who did not want his/her name to be revealed, released a message for Alevis and Alevi organizations in Turkey, saying: “It is a great happiness to make a donation through art to the HDP which is the biggest spokesmodel for democracy, justice, peace and welfare.”
Painter Yaşar commented on his auctioned painting, saying that it depicts the story of a woman who had to emigrate, just like himself. “The fact that people who have emigrated from their own lands feel something lacking although they have life safety, is what pushed me to paint.”
“We can criticize the HDP all we want from wherever we are. I will use my right to criticize (the party) when the HDP has the floor to speak and if it does not grant people their rights. Whatever we say now has no benefit because the party does not have the floor to speak in this system,” he said.
On Jan. 5, the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled to block HDP bank accounts holding Treasury aid as it continues hearing a case seeking the party's closure over alleged militant ties.
The move against the HDP, the third biggest party in parliament, comes ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections that are set to be held by June and which are expected to present a major challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
(English version by Didem Atakan)