The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), known for having links to the PKK terrorist group, is set to officially announce this week its support that has so far remained implicit for opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in Türkiye’s fast-approaching presidential election.
By refusing to field a candidate of its own, the HDP threw its tacit support behind Kılıçdaroğlu last month, but party officials are preparing to make it official on Friday. Once they do, members will spread across the field to ask for votes for Kılıçdaroğlu from eastern and southeastern Anatolia regions with predominantly Kurdish populations.
“We will vote for a presidential candidate who objects to the oppression of the Kurds,” local media quoted HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan as saying last week. “We will announce this name in the coming days,” she added. “We will tell you the name openly, don’t worry.”
With less than three weeks left until the polls, the party is increasing rallies and expediting campaign efforts. As a result, chances have also increased of Kılıçdaroğlu visiting HDP offices during demonstrations across southeastern provinces starting this weekend.
A top official from Kılıçdaroğlu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) recently confessed to the collaboration between Kılıçdaroğlu and the HDP, thus by association with the PKK, which keeps a stronghold in Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq from where it devises and launches attacks on Türkiye, as well as nearby cities and towns.
Sezgin Tanrıkulu, parliamentary candidate for the CHP from the Diyarbakır province, claimed the Nation Alliance’s election promises match with a declaration the HDP released two years ago.
In an 11-item statement titled "Document of Attitude" and dubbed the "Betrayal Declaration" in 2021, the party outlined its promises of social, economic, and, most notably, administrative change, namely the removal of the current presidential system of governance, something the opposition bloc has based its election road map on.
“We have a joint text that includes 2,400 items under which the leaders of the six parties have signed. Many points in this text overlap with the HDP’s declaration,” Tanrıkulu said in remarks that sparked broad backlash.
Many condemned the affiliation as “treason” for advocating scandalous goals like regional autonomy in Kurdish-majority cities, the release of jailed terrorists, and ethnic identity cards under the pretext of “strong democracy.”
The alliance between Kılıçdaroğlu and the PKK terrorists could indeed lead to an erosion of democratic rights for legitimizing the group’s so-called separatist agenda. Kılıçdaroğlu is said to have sought the HDP’s favor due to the party’s kingmaker status, as it enjoys more than 10% support.
On top of much criticism by rivals and partners alike for his rapprochement with the HDP, Kılıçdaroğlu has since garnered the praise of so-called PKK seniors, Cemil Bayık, Murat Karayılan, Mustafa Karasu, Duran Kalkan, Bese Hozat, Helin Ümit, Sabri Ok and Remzi Kartal, as well.
All invariably claimed, “Our alliance must end the AK Party-MHP fascism,” referring to the People’s Alliance, an election bloc headlined by Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in partnership with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and two other smaller parties.
“They wanted to take down the ‘table for six,’ but the alliance did not splinter. So it’s now time for our leader Öcalan to be free,” Karayılan, one of the PKK’s co-founders, was quoted as saying, while another co-Chair Bese Hozat claimed May 14 elections had “historical significance.”
“We find the HDP’s stance of supporting the Nation Alliance valuable, important and meaningful. It will directly affect the outcome of the elections. We support this stance,” Hozat told a PKK-affiliated channel last month.
Erdoğan too strongly condemned the collusion numerous times and railed at his chief rival for equating Türkiye’s Kurdish population with the PKK by “conspiring” with the terrorists and resolutely underlined the difference between the two.
“Kılıçdaroğlu is only after seizing the post with terrorists’ support, but Türkiye is not a state of terrorism and terrorists will not find take root here,” he declared.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization in the United States, the European Union and Türkiye. It has been waging a bloody terrorist campaign against the country for four decades, attacking security personnel and civilians and massacring over 40,000 people since 1984.
The “Kurdish question” has been a pretext for the PKK to find legitimacy for its separatist agenda, so-called Kurdish self-rule, and the exploitation of the Kurdish community.
Kurds in Türkiye, even those in northern parts of Iraq and Syria, have fallen victim to the PKK’s brutal campaign, where it has been forcing Kurdish citizens to pay tributes to it and either killing or brainwashing children to join or assist their terrorist acts.
Despite harsh state measures to contain and eradicate terrorism, which Ankara says is the root of the Kurdish issue, the group finds a political foothold in parties like the HDP, many of whose mayors are facing charges of collaborating with PKK terrorists and providing logistical support and equipment.
