Amid growing crackdown, pro-Kurdish party calls for new elections in Turkey
Facing ongoing pressure, Turkey’s Kurdish-majority HDP has called for early elections after 24 elected mayors have been removed from office.
![TURKEY-KURDS/ Pervin Buldan, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), speaks before starting a two-day hunger strike in support of jailed Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Guven's own hunger strike against the isolation of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in prison, at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, Turkey December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RC17525CE770](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2019/11/RTS28TQ4.jpg/RTS28TQ4.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=gdGjqQ_q)
Following initial deliberations about withdrawing from parliament in protest over sustained state pressure, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party called for early elections during a meeting with its constituents Wednesday.
Officials from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) reached the decision after dozens of party members and supporters have been sacked, detained or jailed in recent months. Since the municipal elections in March, 24 of the party’s mayors have been removed from office on terror-related charges and replaced by state-appointed trustees.