Threatening Erdoğan will not help the HDP

On Tuesday, Co-Chairman of the Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş made the shortest ever parliamentary group meeting address telling the audience he and his colleagues will do everything in their power to "never ever" allow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to establish a presidential system in Turkey. He also categorically denied any kind of behind the scenes pre-elections dealings with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

The HDP used to field its candidates as independents and thus win massive seats in the eastern and southeastern provinces and then bring them together in Parliament under its own roof to establish a parliamentary group because the party knew it could not win enough national votes to pass the 10 percent threshold. Now the HDP has changed tactics and declared that it willenter the June elections as a party without its independent candidates and will try to pass the 10 percent threshold.

As soon as the HDP made this announcement, the political lobbies were buzzing with gossip that the HDP had made an agreement with the AK Party so that it would not be able to win any seats in Parliament as it would not be able to pass the 10 percent threshold and instead the AK Party would win all the seats in eastern and southeastern Turkey to win enough of a majority to be able to rewrite the constitution, which would satisfy the Kurds and also establish a presidential system that would make Erdoğan the head of state in such a system.

Of course, this was never the case. There were no dealings between the AK Party and the HDP. The Kurds wanted to challenge the AK Party to force it to lift the 10 percent threshold because Erdoğan and his people know well that a Parliament without the Kurdish presence of the HDP will be a prescription for serious political and social upheaval.

Besides this, by fielding independents, the HDP saw that it was losing many votes and was not properly represented in Parliament despite its huge popular support in eastern and especially southeastern Turkey. Another factor is the fact that the party that wins more than 7 percent of the national votes qualifies to receive decent state aid annually, whereas when you field independents and then collect them under the roof of a party in Parliament you get no state aid.

HDP Co-Chairman Demirtaş is trying to court the opposition votes, especially that of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), thus he is targeting Erdoğan directly. Yet this is meaningless and unnecessary.

Instead of bashing Erdoğan and the AK Party and trying to go out of your way to show there is no friendship between the HDP and the AK Party because of the positive developments of the peace and reconciliation process, Demirtaş would be better advised to play upon the shortcomings of the CHP.

After all he did win 9.8 percent of the votes at the presidential elections as a Kurd by attracting votes from the CHP, not the AK Party. The HDP has excellent views on the protection of the underprivileged groups in Turkey, which the CHP does not have. It is an ardent supporter of gender equality, children's rights and animal rights and vehemently opposes violence against women and offers strong solutions.

Demirtaş and the HDP are well advised to lead a strong election campaign with their views on the injustices in Turkey. But they should not target Erdoğan because all that will do is strengthen the ranks of the AK Party and will not grab votes from the CHP.