HDP leaders would be advised to live in the real world
The pro-Kurdish HDP once again repeats its ridiculous claims, accusing the ruling AK Party of cooperating with ISIS in the latest terrorist attack in Suruç
For decades this columnist has been following the Kurdish movement in Turkey and has seen some very sharp and witty Kurdish politicians. Yet in recent years the quality of the Kurdish political movement seems to have fallen dramatically despite the fact that more and more citizens of Kurdish origin have managed to enter Parliament.
Objective Turks have always supported the idea that Kurdish politicians should take their rightful place in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) and show to everyone that they can continue an effective struggle for democratic rights so that all the Kurds of Turkey can feel they are first class citizens in this country. That means the "armed struggle" that has been going on for decades becomes redundant and thus the PKK, which has been leading what is called an "armed struggle" that most of the time turned into brutal terrorist actions, becomes unnecessary.
It was this columnist who actively opposed the decision of Parliament in the 1990s to throw the Kurdish deputies out of the house and send some to jail and some into exile. Those actions only helped the PKK to flourish and gain moral ground.
So many Turks turned out in the June 7 elections to display their democratic preferences and voted for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), allowing the "Kurds" to overcome the 10 percent threshold. Thus the HDP received an impressive 13 percent of the votes winning 80 seats in Parliament.
Yet since then the HDP has been acting as if only the Kurds who had sympathies for the PKK voted for the party. A relatively high number of Turks and Kurds who voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) before voted for the HDP thus lifting it from its normal 6 to 7 percent of the votes to 13 percent.
Today we see that the HDP continues to talk along the same lines as the PKK and more of its leaders say the party relies on the backing of the armed wing of the militant Kurds of Turkey as well as the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing. This is a gross mistake.
People did not flock to the polling stations to back the HDP on June 7 to hear this kind of talk. They would have expected the HDP to say they drew their strength from the votes and backing of the Turkish and Kurdish people and nothing else.
HDP leaders are trying to marginalize their political movement while they openly declared their sympathies with those who have started low-level terrorist actions in eastern and southeastern Turkey in recent weeks. In only a month PKK militants burned down seven TIR lorries on different occasions in eastern and southeastern Turkey. They continue terrorizing people in many forms. The armed clash between the army and the PKK in the southeastern province of Adıyaman on Monday, which left one non-commissioned officer dead, is a sad reminder of how things can turn ugly in Turkey with a small spark.
Is this what the HDP wants for Turkey?
If by chance Turkey heads for early elections because the current Parliament cannot produce a coalition government within 45 days then the HDP may face some serious challenges in the elections if it continues its current tactic of promoting violence and discord. On Monday when a suicide bomber suspected of being a militant of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) killed 31 young Kurdish activists of Turkey and wounded 100 others in Suruç in the southeastern province of Urfa, HDP leaders again started pointing the finger at the government saying the ruling AK Party had cooperated with ISIS in this bloody terrorist action.
HDP leaders should have known better than that. They should know that the greatest target for ISIS would be moderate Muslims like those who support the AK Party and if by chance they managed to grab power in Turkey the first people they would dispose of would be devout Muslims. Claiming an ISIS-Turkish government cooperation is not only ridiculous but also very dangerous. It is the easy and cheap way out for the HDP. This is exactly the discord ISIS would love to create in Turkey. Can't the HDP leadership see all this?
Objective Turks have always supported the idea that Kurdish politicians should take their rightful place in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) and show to everyone that they can continue an effective struggle for democratic rights so that all the Kurds of Turkey can feel they are first class citizens in this country. That means the "armed struggle" that has been going on for decades becomes redundant and thus the PKK, which has been leading what is called an "armed struggle" that most of the time turned into brutal terrorist actions, becomes unnecessary.
It was this columnist who actively opposed the decision of Parliament in the 1990s to throw the Kurdish deputies out of the house and send some to jail and some into exile. Those actions only helped the PKK to flourish and gain moral ground.
So many Turks turned out in the June 7 elections to display their democratic preferences and voted for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), allowing the "Kurds" to overcome the 10 percent threshold. Thus the HDP received an impressive 13 percent of the votes winning 80 seats in Parliament.
Yet since then the HDP has been acting as if only the Kurds who had sympathies for the PKK voted for the party. A relatively high number of Turks and Kurds who voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) before voted for the HDP thus lifting it from its normal 6 to 7 percent of the votes to 13 percent.
Today we see that the HDP continues to talk along the same lines as the PKK and more of its leaders say the party relies on the backing of the armed wing of the militant Kurds of Turkey as well as the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing. This is a gross mistake.
People did not flock to the polling stations to back the HDP on June 7 to hear this kind of talk. They would have expected the HDP to say they drew their strength from the votes and backing of the Turkish and Kurdish people and nothing else.
HDP leaders are trying to marginalize their political movement while they openly declared their sympathies with those who have started low-level terrorist actions in eastern and southeastern Turkey in recent weeks. In only a month PKK militants burned down seven TIR lorries on different occasions in eastern and southeastern Turkey. They continue terrorizing people in many forms. The armed clash between the army and the PKK in the southeastern province of Adıyaman on Monday, which left one non-commissioned officer dead, is a sad reminder of how things can turn ugly in Turkey with a small spark.
Is this what the HDP wants for Turkey?
If by chance Turkey heads for early elections because the current Parliament cannot produce a coalition government within 45 days then the HDP may face some serious challenges in the elections if it continues its current tactic of promoting violence and discord. On Monday when a suicide bomber suspected of being a militant of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) killed 31 young Kurdish activists of Turkey and wounded 100 others in Suruç in the southeastern province of Urfa, HDP leaders again started pointing the finger at the government saying the ruling AK Party had cooperated with ISIS in this bloody terrorist action.
HDP leaders should have known better than that. They should know that the greatest target for ISIS would be moderate Muslims like those who support the AK Party and if by chance they managed to grab power in Turkey the first people they would dispose of would be devout Muslims. Claiming an ISIS-Turkish government cooperation is not only ridiculous but also very dangerous. It is the easy and cheap way out for the HDP. This is exactly the discord ISIS would love to create in Turkey. Can't the HDP leadership see all this?
Last Update: July 22, 2015 01:40