HDP campaigns under Green Left, not field own presidential candidate
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – This week, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) made two major announcements: it would not field their own presidential candidate, and their politicians would run for parliament under the Green Left Party banner.
Pervin Buldan, the HDP’s co-chair, explained that her party was going to “fulfill our historical responsibility toward the one-man rule in the presidential elections” by not fielding their own candidate.
Though she did not mention him by name, the HDP will likely join in supporting the main opposition candidate, the Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s Kemal Kilicdaroglu. According to an expert quoted by al-Monitor, a news site, this may add “at least eight or nine points” to Kilicdaroglu’s presidential run. The CHP chair is currently in the lead in head-to-head polls against the incumbent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The HDP’s preference for Kilicdargolu is hardly a surprise. Several elected mayors and regional leaders from the HDP have been arrested, imprisoned and replaced by presidential appointees during Erdogan’s rule. The HDP’s former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtas, has been behind bars since November 2016.
Whether Kilicdaroglu made concrete promises to the pro-Kurdish party in return for their support is not yet known. Last week, the CHP man said he would meet with HDP representatives.
This has put stress on the CHP’s largest junior partner in Turkey’s opposition coalition, the Good Party (IYI). Before Kilicdaroglu’s official nomination, two weeks ago, IYI’s leader, Meral Aksener, withdrew her party from the coalition before returning after a turbulent weekend. A point of contention has been Kilicdargolu’s liberal approach to the Kurdish issue in Turkey. The IYI party is an outgrowth of the far-right MHP, which is part of Erdogan’s government.
Al-Monitor reports that an IYI representative from Istanbul, Yavuz Agiralioglu, withdrew her candidacy for parliamentary elections over a meeting between CHP and HDP officials.
In a second major announcement, the HDP said its candidates would run for parliamentary seats under the Green Left Party banner in order to circumvent a possible closure of their party. The HDP is being investigated by Turkey’s Constitutional Court over possible terrorist links in what observers have called a politically-motivated case.
The Green Left Party was established in 2016 and forms part of the People’s Democratic Congress, a left-wing union of parties and civil society groups which established the HDP in 2012. The Green Left Party recently changed its logo to one resembling the HDP’s.
Mithat Sancar, the HDP’s other co-chair, said his party made the decision as “we couldn’t have left this process up to the mercy of the government, to the initiative of the court.”