Mr. Stanishev met with the Leader of HDP party in Brussels. Selahattin Demirtas was in Brussels attending the PES Pre-Council to inform other leaders about the situation in Turkey.
Mr Stanishev said: “The PES says YES to the EU-Turkey agreement, NO to any compromise on human rights.”
“Relations with Turkey are a complex matter. In order to understand this and ensure a satisfactory outcome for all of them, we need to listen to numerous groups, not only the current Turkish government. It is for that reason that we invited the leaders of both of our sister parties in Turkey to the pre-EU Council meeting today. I was pleased to be able to speak to Selahattin Demirtas so that he could inform us about the current situation in the country, in particular with regard to it’s South East region and tell us how we can help in the fight for human rights and media freedom as well.”
Mr. Demirtash underlined once again during the meeting with Stanishev that the relationship between European Union and Turkey should not depend on Erdoagn’s policies.
The PES has recently sent/been a member of two missions to Turkey. Late in 2015 Sergei Stanishev visited to support CHP and HDP after the elections. More recently, in January 2016, a delegation led by Jan Royall, PES Vice-President and Giacomo Filibeck, PES Deputy Secretary General visited Diyarbakir in the besieged area of South-Eastern Turkey.
See all photos from the PES pre-EU Council