With a little over a week left until Türkiye’s much-anticipated presidential and parliamentary polls, a top figure of the six-party opposition coalition has sparked controversy by refusing to classify the terror group PKK’s northern Syria-based affiliate YPG as a terrorist organization.
“The YPG or PYD is not described as a terrorist organization in the European Union or many other countries,” Ali Babacan, the head of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), said Wednesday in a YouTube interview when a citizen asked whether the Nation Alliance would “allow a terror state” in northern Syria.
While acknowledging the PKK’s status as a terror organization blacklisted in the United States and the EU, Babacan claimed the same description did not apply to the YPG or PYD.
“Even if they appear similar in their roots, there is a difference between the two (PKK and YPG). Many European nations don’t recognize it as a terror group. The PKK and the YPG could be of the same source, but terrorism has a definition, not just Türkiye’s own exclusive description but an international definition,” Babacan argued.
“If it is a terror group, we will fight it until the end. Fighting a terror group doesn’t happen with just guns,” he said.
He also claimed the table for six, a common nickname for the alliance, would base its counterterrorism and border security policies on framework documents of the EU and the United Nations.
Babacan’s denial adds to the disregard he and his opposition partners have been growing against the terrorist groups, most notably due to the bloc’s collaboration with the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), a party known for its affiliation with the PKK and currently fighting a ban lawsuit because of it.
The HDP is accused of illegally funneling taxpayers’ money to the PKK's ranks in support of its bloody campaign that has left more than 40,000 people dead in Türkiye over the past 40 years.
Since the party pledged its endorsement of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the bloc’s presidential challenger against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, response across the board has been fairly muted, save for indefinite remarks of rejection from Meral Akşener, the leader of the bloc’s second-biggest member, the Good Party (IP).
Akşener often reprimands “anyone doing business with the PKK” even though her partner Kılıçdaroğlu has the full support of the HDP and has since garnered the praise of several so-called PKK seniors who championed him in “ending AK Party-MHP fascism.”
Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is partnered with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and two other smaller parties, who have also condemned Kılıçdaroğlu for accepting the HDP’s backing. Denouncing Kılıçdaroğlu’s “collusion with terrorists” has also been a key highlight of Erdoğan’s campaign so far, as he frequently reiterates, “They just want Türkiye to stop its progress in every field and hand over the country to terrorist groups controlled by imperialists.”
Many fear the alliance between Kılıçdaroğlu and the PKK terrorists could lead to an erosion of democratic rights for legitimizing the group’s agenda for a so-called separatist autonomous state for Kurds. Kılıçdaroğlu is said to have sought the HDP’s favor due to the party’s kingmaker status, as it enjoys more than 10% support, mostly from Kurdish voters.
Indeed, the HDP’s ties to the PKK were exposed further when its partner, the Green Left Party (YSP), under which the HDP will compete in the parliamentary elections due to the closure lawsuit, laid bare its postelection plans.
Azad Barış, a candidate for Parliament from the YSP, reaffirmed that his party would work for autonomy for the Kurdish community in Türkiye if they can gain backing in the parliamentary elections.
Speaking to broadcaster Rudaw, Barış also voiced his party’s pledge to end the Turkish military’s counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Syria.
“We will take back Afrin,” he said in the interview, referring to the Syrian city liberated from the grip of the PKK/YPG with the Turkish army’s assistance through Operation Olive Branch in 2018.
“We are a new party, but they try to stop us,” Barış said of their opponents.
Claiming they were not seeking to establish what he claimed “great Kurdistan” in Iraq, Iran, Türkiye and Syria, he said, “We don’t want to divide countries; we want autonomy (for Kurds) in every country they live, a decentralized autonomy.”
