ISTANBUL, ANF ─ Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Presidents Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ announced the party’s election manifesto in Istanbul today.
The HDP manifesto highlighted the following major 12 points; “We are women, We are youth, We are the rainbow, We are children, We are defenders of democracy, We are representatives of all identities, We are defenders of a free world, We are protector of the nature, We are builder of a safe life economy, We are workers, We are laborers, We are the guarantor of social rights.”
The goals of the party have been announced as follows:
WE ARE WOMEN
We will establish the Ministry of Women.
We will include indoors labor in social security, arrange social support packages in accordance with the principle of justice and equality.
We will open day care centers in all neighborhoods to provide 7/24 service free of charge and in mother tongue.
We will open nursing centers for old persons and rehabilitation centers for the disabled.
We will declare 8 March public holiday.
WE ARE YOUTHS
We will establish the Ministry of Youth that will directly meet the needs of the youths and replace the Ministry of Youth and Sport which allocates a substantial part of its budget to sport activities, identifies youth with sport and attempts to depoliticize them.
We will pave the way for the youths, who are being imposed a monist life style, to live together and freely preserving their own mother tongue, belief, culture, sexual tendency and gender identity. We will remove all the obstacles to the organization of youths in line with their rights and decisions.
We will initiate a “Young Life Card” to provide every single youth aged between 15-25 with 200 TL support for communication and transportation.
We will bring down the age of voting to 16 and the age of being elected to 18.
We will realize free and democratic universities and build gender-egalitarian campuses without barriers.
We will remove the unjust testing system that determines the future of millions of youths every year. We will enable every student to receive education in the schools and departments they themselves prefer in line with their success and skills.
We will abolish the YÖK (Council of Higher Education) and replace it with a inter-university Coordination Board in charge of relations and flow of information.
We will provide the necessary budget on central and local level in order to ensure non-refundable grant for all students.
We will provide free spheres of life for university students, including dormitory, laundry, library and cultural center.
We will assure the right to employment and develop solutions for the employment of youths who constitute the leading social group facing an unemployment problem.
We will ensure social security for all youths as a fundamental right.
We will remove all the obstacles to the freedom of information for youths.
We will provide uncensored and free internet at town centers, mass transportation vehicles and public spheres.
We will recognize the right to conscientious objection.
We will enable all the anti-militarist youths to enjoy their most fundamental right.
We will make all the necessary legal arrangements to enable public service to replace military service for all conscientious objectors.
We believe it is crucial to abolish compulsory military service.
WE ARE THE RAINBOW
We will end the gender-based discrimination and repression against sexual orientation.
We will enable LGBT individuals to lead an equal, honorable and humanitarian life.
We will give an end to the problem of recognition of LGBT individuals and ensure constitutional assurance for equal citizenship.
We will initiate all legal arrangements and social policies defending the equality and rejecting the discrimination of LGBT individuals.
We will form local and central management structures to ensure a direct representation of LGBT individuals in administrative and political decision-making mechanisms.
We will fight to change the homophobic mentality and build campuses freed of discrimination.
We will initiate a public education process to end the gender-based perspective.
We will form mechanism against all kind of discrimination and violence.
WE ARE CHILDREN
We will establish “Children’s Rights Observatory and Assessment Commissions” affiliated to local municipalities and condition the allocation of sufficient sources for children.
We will ensure the review and arrangement of all laws and articles that concern children.
We will end the poverty of children, form food banks in every neighborhood to assure all the children’s right to nourishment, and give free basic food packages to every child.
We will not allow child labor so that children don’t have to live and work out in streets.
We will impose the heaviest sentences for perpetrators of violence against children.
We will make sure laws abolishing violence against children at home, schools and streets.
We will close juvenile prisons and establish “Education and Support Centers for Children” for criminalized juveniles.
We will own the memories of Berkins, Uğurs and Ceylans.
WE ARE DEFENDERS OF DEMOCRACY
We will initiate a democratic reform process against all kinds of military-civilian-bureaucratic tutelage, strict centralist structures and anti-democratic laws.
We will all together make a new Constitution based on humanity and pursuant to the multi-identity, multi-cultural, multi-faith and multi-lingual structure of Turkey.
We will realize “democratic autonomy” everywhere in Turkey to enable the achievement of democratization, social peace and a free and voluntary unity of peoples. Local administrators, including the Governor, will be elected by people.
We will ensure the democratization of the parliamentary system and initiate the Co-Prime Minister system in the event that parties implementing the co-chair system come to the power.
We will remove all the restrictions and oppressive laws against fundamental rights and freedoms.
We will consider all democratic actions staged to claim rights as legitimate.
We will abolish all outcomes of the 12 September military coup, including the National Security Council, specially authorized courts, JİTEM (gendarmerie intelligence and anti-terror unit) and counterinsurgency. All kinds of torture and ill treatment will be counted as crime against humanity.
The Constitution we will prepare will never give place to the presidential system.
We will ensure the democratization of the Law on Political Parties and make arrangements to ensure the direct participation of party members in decision-making processes.
We wil remove the election threshold and enable the representation of all parties in line with the rate of votes they receive.
Positive discrimination will be practices until equality in representation is ensured through gender quota.
We will achieve a profound resolution to the Kurdish question and building of a democratic Turkey.
We will establish democratic models of decentralization to involve all ethnic identities and to ensure their self-administration. Through regional assemblies, we will switch into a decentralization system.
We will defend a disarmed resolution and democratic politics, whatever the circumstances.
We will ensure conditions to enable the together-living and voluntary unity of peoples, and a living based on justice in our common land.
WE ARE DEFENDERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
We will rearrange the justice system to ensure the practice of law fast, impartially, independently and in a manner to satisfy the public conscience and individuals. We will end the tutelage of the Ministry of Justice on the HSYK (Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors).
We will ensure the equality of prosecution and jurisdiction within the judicial system.
We will bring an end to arbitrary practices in house, workplace and body searches and arrests, and provide free legal service in mother tongue.
We will open prison to civil supervision.
We will end all practices against human dignity in prisons. We will end isolation, restriction of basic rights and administrative repression, and make a fundamental arrangement of the Law on Punishment and Execution.
We will ensure the immediate release of ill prisoners.
We will sentence the perpetrators of crimes of hate and impose no punishment on anybody for their political thought and acts, remove ‘political crimes’ from the category of crimes.
Calling on everyone to confront the history, we will establish “Truth Commissions” to shed light on genocides, massacres, executions, disappearances and similar actions.
We will give a start to returns.
We will return all the property occupied by the state and settled individuals as a consequence of forced displacements. Those wanting to return to their villages will be provided support, including financial, in order for them to take part in production.
We will bring an end to the construction of dams and hydroelectric power plants (HES) for security reasons, and the new policies of forced displacement caused by urban transformation.
We will abolish the village-guard system, employ village guards in other fields and protect their personal rights.
We will not make a concession from the freedom of communication and information.
We will stand against interventions restricting the freedom of press and communication. We will not allow the owners of media organizations to be involved in activities in other sectors.
We will end the repression of the state on culture and art. We will work together with the Ministry of Culture and found a Council of Art elected by artists. Any decision on the policies of culture and art will be made together with this Council.
We will end the hindrances to the freedom of thought on social media and arbitrary bans on internet.
We will protect freedoms.
WE ARE FROM ALL IDENTITIES
Defending “equality for peoples and freedom for beliefs”, we will assure the right of all peoples and beliefs to express themselves freely.
We will enable constitutional assurance to every single person, whether with a belief or not, on the basis of “equal citizenship”.
We will realize the libertarian secularism perspective pertaining to humanity.
We will end obligation to religion lessons which will be provided in line with elections. Abolishing the Directorate of Religious Affairs, we will have the state lay its hands off religion and the sphere of faith.
We will ensure an unhindered freedom of organization to all faith groups and recognize all Alevi places of worship, Djemevis in the first place, as a place of worship.
We on behalf of the state will apologize from peoples for all the genocides and massacres perpetrated in the past. We will return all the property seized by the state to their owners and compensate the material damages caused by the state.
We will make no intervention on the appearance and dresses preferred in line with religious beliefs.
We will end racist and nationalist policies that impose the superiority of a people, religion and sect over another.
We will work for the protection and improvement of all identities and cultures.
WE ARE DEFENDERS OF FREE WORLD
We will work in order for all the peoples, those in the Middle East in the first place, to determine their political future freely. We will ensure the strengthening of economic, social and cultural ties between peoples in the Middle East.
We will make an effort for the ending of the civil war in Syria and the achievement of a resolution based on the fraternity and equality of peoples.
We will give priority to Great Mankind and peace everywhere.
We will stand against Israeli government’s policies for genocide and occupation. We wil provide any kind of support for the ending of the occupation of Palestine and for the recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to found an independent state.
We will support Cyprus and Greek peoples’ efforts and solution proposals to end the dividedness of the Island.
We will remove the economic embargo on Armenia and build bridges of friendship with the Armenian people. We will unconditionally open the Turkey-Armenia border closed by Turkey one sidedly. We wil support effort for a resolution to the Karabağ issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
We will handle negotiations with the European Union and works for full membership within the scope of our principles.
We will start cooperation with an aim to develop solutions to worldwide problems such as racism, anti-semitism, human trafficking (exploitation of women’s and children’s rights), migration issues, international drug trafficking, forced displacements, xenophobia, Islamophobia and similar matters that concern human values.
We will develop relationships for peace, with not only states but also world peoples.
WE ARE PROTECTORS OF THE NATURE
We will protect the nature and all living being’s right to life against capitalism. We will realize the demands of everyone fighting for the same purpose.
We will stop investments on nuclear energy.
We will stop the destruction of HES, thermal and nuclear energy projects, mining causing ecological destruction, and the destruction of living spheres as a result of industrial wastes and pollution.
We will enable the generation of energy on site and to meet the need of the local people. We will give priority to renewable energy.
We will support in-situ transformation against projects of urban transformation pillaging the cities.
We will not allow the plundering of agricultural and forested lands, pasture areas and shores.
We will cancel all the agreements on the right to use water and all the projects that might cause the devastation of ecological balance.
We will cancel arrangements, laws and practices that cause the animals to be killed and become a part of the capital accumulation with their furs and bodies.
We will protect the nature for the next generations.
WE ARE BUILDERS OF A SAFE LIVING ECONOMY
We will guarantee the basic necessities of a human living.
Through a “Basic Guarantee Package”, we will provide 10 cubic meters water and 180 kw/h electricity free of charge to every house a month. Tenants will be provided with 250 TL rent support.
Minors and youths under 18, disabled and retirees will be provided with free transport. Public transport will be provided as a nonprofit service across the country.
We will give a determined fight against poverty and not allow any citizen to be left hungry, homeless and in need of care. The unemployment fund will be used fitting its purpose.
Minimum wage will be increased to 1,800 TL at the first stage.
We will ensure justice in tax payments, collecting taxes in line with earnings.
We will decrease the defense and security spendings and open them to the surveillance of the people.
We will subject public procurement to public surveillance and end the corruption economy.
We will revoke the discretionary fund.
We will revive agriculture and involve all agricultural laborers in the scope of the labor act and social security.
We will turn villages into centers of living and production.
We will provide water and electricity to small farmers free of charge, write off their electricity debts and levy no taxes for the fuel and fertilizers used in production.
We will ban genetically modified organisms (GDO) in food production, management and importation.
We will protect city and town squares, parks, woods and shores and allow no crazy projects.
We will give no license for shopping malls to be constructed in city centers.
WE ARE WORKERS, LABORERS
We will make the Great Mankind sovereign in working life.
We will abolish the subcontracting system gradually.
We will stop murders in mines.
We will stop workplace murders by ensuring safe working in all areas.
We will recognize the worker’s health and safety as a constitutional right, end the policy of impunity currently in effect, and ensure the trial of those responsible for workplace murders.
We will grant all public workers with the right to bargain collectively, to strike and to politically organize.
In order to increase employment and protect workers, the official weekly working time will be decreased to 35 hours without causing a loss of salary.
Basic forms of seeking rights such as strike will be taken under legal assurance. We will hinder the government’s authority to delay strikes.
We will make sure that unions and workers will be the basic supervisor of worker’s health and safety.
We will guarantee the right of seasonal agricultural workers to organize, and take all kinds of precautions against discrimination.
We will end discriminative and eliminative practices against immigrants.
WE ARE THE GUARANTOR OF SOCIAL RIGHTS
We will raise the rate of social charges to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) from 1,4 % to 3 %.
By building safe and sheltered public houses, we will guarantee every citizen’s housing right.
We will raise the lowest retirement salary to 1,800 TL.
We will enact a law on adjustment and eliminate the wages inequality.
We will remove the obstacles to the organization of retirees.
We will grant social security for all the elderly and disabled and meet their health care needs without charge. We will not condition an income to allocate care pension for the elderly and disabled.
We will form a ‘Ministry of Removal of Obstacles’ to work in line with the proposals of a council made up of organizations of the handicapped.
Quota for the disabled at workplaces will be made higher. All workplaces and social spheres will be rearranged for the use of the disabled.
Seeking to make a revolution in education, we will give priority to the elimination of quality differences between schools.
We will provide free education and demand no money from the families under any cover.
We will free the curriculum and schoolbooks of monist, sex-oriented, militarist and chauvinist concept, and ensure a multi-lingual education system on the basis of mother tongue.
We will end the 4+4+4 system that dissociates schools.
Starting from the very beginning, we will rearrange the education system in consideration of the ‘Children’s Best Interest’.
We will enable the employment of all unassigned teachers, and abolish the substitute teacher system that damages the human dignity.
We will enable all laborers in educational field to get a salary they deserve and promote a local and inventive administration of education.
We will establish a democratic health system to be participated by the people and health workers in order for the planning, practice, assessment and inspection of health services.
We will give an end to profit-oriented practices in health services.
We will build an order in which no single person will be deprived of their social rights.
* The election manifesto of the HDP has been translated from Turkish by ANF English service.
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