Recently, the opposition parties in Turkey have made some public remarks on the Kurdish question. Although political parties naturally express their opinions and visions on the country’s principal issues, it is interesting that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) shows a strong interest in the Kurdish question.

Throughout the entire history of the Turkish republic, the CHP has always taken up an oppressive position towards not only the Kurdish issue but also individual rights and freedoms, including freedom of religion and conscience. This is why the CHP’s voting rate in Turkey’s southeastern regions has never exceeded 5% in recent years. Known as an oppressive political party that usurped the rights of the people, the CHP remains unlikely to pioneer the emergence of a political culture of negotiation and reconciliation.

The struggle of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against the PKK terrorist group in Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq, when combined with the existential threat of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and Daesh, led Turkey to engage in a struggle for survival against terrorist organizations.

Therefore, the AK Party adopted a nationalist electoral discourse during the local elections of 2019, while the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) took its side with the opposition Nation Alliance. Conducting an anti-governmental electoral campaign, the HDP surrendered itself to the PKK while making a pragmatic alliance with Turkey’s Jacobin political parties. Instead of acting responsibly towards its voters in terms of the resolution of Turkey’s Kurdish question, the HDP bore a grudge against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who courageously initiated the Reconciliation Process in 2013 at the risk of losing nationalist votes.

AK Party's reforms

Since coming to power in 2002, the AK Party has made dramatic reforms in order to resolve Turkey’s Kurdish question. During its two-decade-long political rule, the AK Party has treated the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and the Aegean city of Izmir on equal footing.

In fact, the southeastern regions received positive discrimination in terms of public investments. While fighting against the PKK’s terrorism, the AK Party government put an end to the discriminatory policies of the former political regime of the Sept. 12 coup. In terms of positive initiatives, the AK Party;