JINHA

NEWS CENTER – With many of its 268 woman candidates prominent figures in the women's movement across Turkey, the HDP is emerging as the party endorsed by many women's groups in Turkey.

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) aims to present a serious challenge to the 13-year reign of the AKP in Turkey's June 2015 election. Alongside economic exploitation, police violence and discrimination against minorities, the AKP is known for its politics of encouraging femicide and a state of impunity for perpetrators of violence against women.

Now the party, founded on the slogan "a woman's party," is drawing votes from feminists. Feminist groups said in a statement released today that although no party can entirely encompass the goals and organizing practices of the feminist movement, the HDP was the only party fighting the anti-democratic practices of the AKP and waging a feminist struggle in the election.

Women candidates in the city of Ankara came together for a meeting today, along with women candidates from the nearby cities of Nevşehir and Kırıkkale. Women packed the Telvin Café, many bringing their children with them.

Similar meetings of women across the country have been taking place since Friday, when the HDP introduced its 550 candidates for parliament in a large event in Ankara to cries of "woman, life freedom." Women HDP candidates are preparing to bring the feminist struggle into the Parliamentary arena in the election.

"What we see before us demonstrates the excitement created by our women parliamentary candidates," said Semra Demir, provincial co-chair for the party in Ankara, speaking at the local meeting.

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