The Kurdish pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has been considering nominating its own presidential candidate in the upcoming elections and jailed former leader Selahattin Demirtaş is among the potential candidates, HDP co-chair Sezai Temelli said on April 24.
“Considering the party’s grassroots, it is not easy [for the opposition] to have a joint candidate. We have different principles. Every party should present their own nominees in the first round [of the presidential election]. The door to the second round will be opened by strong candidates. Thus, there may be an agreement on an opposition candidate [in the second round],” he told daily Hürriyet.
According to CNN Türk, in an executive board meeting today, the HDP agreed on fielding Demirtaş and is expected to make a formal announcement in the coming days.
Though Demirtaş faces a slew of terror charges over his alleged links to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), there currently are no legal obstacles to his candidacy.
At his most recent courtroom hearing, a defiant Demirtaş said: "We are the ones who will determine the [outcome] of the presidential elections. We are the lock. We are the key."
HDP COULD VOTE FOR THE FOUNDER OF THE RULING AKP PARTY
Ziya Pir, HDP spokesman and the vice-president of the Technology Trends and Security committee of NATO-PA, said the party's candidate for the presidency would probably be Demirtaş.
However, Pir added that if former President Abdullah Gül stands for the presidency then the HDP could vote for him. Gül and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were among the founders of the ruling AKP back in 2001. Turkey’s Islamist ‘Felicity Party’ (SP) chair Temel Karamollaoğlu also said that his party wanted to hold a meeting with Gül if the "opportunity" rises.
On Wednesday, when asked if they would vote for Abdullah Gül, Temelli said he is a "respected politician and should be taken into account," but there have not been any formal contacts about the probability of his nomination.
"We have set up a pool of candidates. Our party assembly will convene before our central executive committee on May 2 and we will declare our candidate on May 3. Selahattin Demirtaş is in the pool of the candidates," Temelli said.
Abdullah Gül, one of leading founders of the AKP, a close friend of Erdoğan, served as the President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as both Deputy Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister between 2003 and 2007.
Temelli is criticized for his participation in the "Not enough, but yes!" campaign which catalysed the AKP-Gülen-liberal trio alliance’s win over the critical constitutional referendum in September 2010.
In February 2018, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan left the door open to a possible alliance between HDP and the Erdoğan's AKP party. "I cannot say anything about what will be in the future. The upcoming process will primarily focus on the removal of blocked political channels," Pervin Buldan told Radio Sputnik.
Both leaders said HDP wants to revive a so-called "solution process" with the AKP government that collapsed three years ago.
