MESOP NEWS “TRY AGAIN & AGAIN”: Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP to elect new co-leader
By Rudaw 2 hours ago – 4 May 2017 – ANKARA, Turkey— The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party in Turkey (HDP) is set to elect a new co-leader to replace Figen Yüksekdağ whose parliamentary membership was revoked by the Turkish supreme court in February after being sentenced to one year in prison earlier on terror-related charges.
HDP’s other co-leader Selahettin Demirtas along with nine other party officials, many of them members of parliament, remain in custody pending trial.
The party is now preparing to introduce Filiz Kerestecioğlu as the next co-leader who will be voted for the new post. Kerestecioğlu, 56, is an MP and head of the HDP block in the Turkish parliament, according to Turkish media which quoted sources inside the party Wednesday. The party will host a meeting this weekend to officially discuss and nominate a replacement who will become the party’s candidate when HDP holds its upcoming congress.