DW: Will the Kurds be Erdogan’s “punishers” in the elections?

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Turkey Heads to Elections and Pro-Kurdish HDP Faces Threat of Financial Annihilation – Kurdish Vote Matters – A Snapshot of the Kurdish Movement Ahead of Elections

2023 is the year Turkey celebrates 100 years of democracy. But how cohesive and pluralistic this democracy is at the start of its second century remains to be seen. For a year and a half, the process of banning the pro-Kurdish party “Democratic People’s Party” (HDP) has been ongoing before the Constitutional Court. In the indictment of the Attorney General, it is stated that the party acts in a separatist manner and maintains relations with terrorism. As part of the proceedings, a prosecutor requested the cessation of financial aid from the state to the party. On Thursday 05.01 the request was accepted by the Constitutional Court, with the result that his accounts were temporarily blocked. The HDP will have to defend its positions pending developments within 30 days, where it will be seen whether the accounts will be reopened or whether financial aid will be permanently reduced. For its part, the party accuses the court of effectively responding to the government’s wishes by freezing the accounts. “With this decision, an attempt is made to prevent fair and democratic elections and the will of the voters is ignored, this decision will not prevent the defeat of the government and our own greater victory,” the party said.

“Politically manipulated decision”

According to DW, state financial support is crucial, as it is for any other party in Turkish political geography. HDP vice-president Taip Temel said after the announcement of the decision that it was an indirect ban on the party. “It’s like banning the party before the process of banning it has even been completed,” he points out. Now his concern seems to be coming true and only time will tell if this is indeed a permanent disruption of government funding or not. “The Constitutional Court has today become an organ of the AKP’s pre-election process,” said Ebru Ginay, representative of the HDP, shortly after the announcement of the controversial decision. But not only the party but also observers characterize the decision as politically manipulated. “This is not a legal but a political decision,” says the Turkish political scientist Berk Esen from Istanbul’s Sabanci University. “Because Turkish justice is biased, the decision was actually taken at the highest political level.” Of course, this is not the first time that a pro-Kurdish party has been ostracized from the political scene. In the period 1999-2009, seven other pro-Kurdish parties were banned by constitutional decisions and then re-established under a different name.

“Nothing new for the Kurdish opposition. In the past many parties were banned, if the HDP is banned in the coming months it will not be an anomaly,” Essen points out. “Kurdish politicians were persecuted in long trials, many of them went to prison.” One of the prisoners is Selahattin Demirtas, former co-chairman of the party and to this day one of the most influential politicians in Turkish political geography. He has been in prison for 6 years. In addition, the government fired several democratically elected mayors in cities with a Kurdish population, just months after the 2019 municipal elections, on charges of terrorism and replaced them with its own. It is interesting to underline that the ruling AKP was supported by a large number of Kurds in the 2000s. As part of the democratization program they were given many rights, such as the right to education or media in the Kurdish language. These were years when the public debate shifted from the “Kurdish question” to a “resolution process” of . This “resolution process” also applied to politics. “During the first years of the government of the AKP, there was relative tolerance towards the Kurdish opposition,” recalls Essen.

The vote of the Kurds is important

However, the government has adopted increasingly nationalist tones over the past 7 years. The election result of 2018 made the glass overflow. The HDP managed to garner over 13% in 2015 forcing the AKP to lose its parliamentary majority. After this point in time Erdogan decided to ally with the nationalist MHP party. This alliance of Islamists and nationalists sets the tone for the country’s politics to this day. The researcher from Sabanci University points out that all the current developments are “not all surprises, considering the attacks of the Turkish government since 2015 against the Kurdish opposition party”. In any case, Turkey is heading for crucial presidential and parliamentary elections, which officially set for June 18. The Kurdish vote plays an important role and according to different estimates represents about 15% to 20% in Turkey. Erdogan will again run with the AKP. It is expected that opposition parties will challenge him fielding a candidate to increase the chances of defeating him and winning the election.This time, as different polls show, the opposition parties have a realistic chance of leading Erdogan to defeat and after more than 20 years his party is out of the It is worth reminding that the HDP does not belong to the so-called “Table of Six”, consisting of six opposition parties. An example that in Turkey open cooperation with the Kurds remains taboo.

According to forecasts, it is estimated that almost 1/5 of the electorate will not cast their vote for Erdogan. “They are very likely to vote for his opponent. Erdogan does not stand much chance of being supported by many Kurdish voters. And he knows that. That’s why he’s trying to develop an alternative strategy,” Essen estimates. “At the moment he is trying to convince as many people as possible not to vote. Within this context one can understand the process of banning the HDP and the attempts at intimidation”. In a recent article published in Turkish media, Demirtas called on the opposition from prison to field a common candidate, saying it would be a “tragedy” if they failed to do so. But what does Essen himself predict? That the majority of Kurdish voters will vote for Erdoğan’s opponent, where of course grudges play an important role. “Many Kurdish voters are concerned about the direction the Turkish political regime is heading and especially what might happen to the HDP.

DW – Burak Inveren/ Irini Anastasopoulou

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