Pro-Kurdish party open for possible alliance with radical Islamist party

Prominent HDP deputy Osman Baydemir added that only after they achieved a formation of an alliance between Kurdish parties, "it can be meaningful to meet on a mutual basis with the democratic forces in Western Turkey"
Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:12

Osman Baydemir, MP from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said on Sunday his party open for a possible alliance with Turkey's Hezbollah affiliated Hüda-Par party. 

After a meeting in northern Iraq, upon a question regarding an alliance of HDP with the parliamentary main opposition party CHP or Hüda-Par for 2019 elections in Turkey, veteran Kurdish politician Baydemir said their "priority is a formation of an alliance between Kurdish parties and even figures."

Baydemir added that only after they achieved this, "it can be meaningful to meet on a mutual basis with the democratic forces in Western Turkey."

Turkey's Hezbollah — unrelated to its Lebanese namesake — is one of the main radical Islamist organizations in Turkey. The group was founded in 1978 and got organized in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Hezbollah earned itself a gruesome nationwide reputation in the early 2000s when police discovered its so-called grave houses across Turkey, in which dozens of people were killed and buried after torture. The victims who disavowed Hezbollah's ideology and journalists. 

In 2003, a year after AKP came to power, Hezbollah sympathizers founded the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Oppressed, which was outlawed in 2012, leading to the creation of the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par) the same year. 

On March 14, Kadri Yıldırım, another MP of HDP, also stated "HDP and Hüda-Par should be knocking on each other's door to the benefit of the Kurdish people" in an interview with local media.

HDP DELEGATION MET BARZANI

Osman Baydemir and Pervin Buldan, the co-leader of HDP, visited Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on April 7, together with a delegation from HDP. Here, the delegation met Masoud Barzani, the former general secretary of KDP, and Nechirvan Barzani, the Prime Minister of KRG.

During a meeting of approximately 2 hours, they "exchanged opinion on recent political developments and national unity", reported media outlets.

Following the meeting, Baydemir issued statements regarding the issue of national unity. Baydemir said "What we mean by 'national unity' is not gathering under a single party all together. It means gathering on a mutual basis so that a fair system can be found in which Kurds can determine their own fate equally and freely as other peoples. It means giving an answer together to the questions 'What do the Kurds want from the world, and from the states in the region?' If we are divided, no one sits on the peace table with us. Only when we band together in the just cause of the Kurdish people and develop a common strategy, our just demands can be accepted."

Baydemir added "An alliance within the Kurds also opens the door for democracy for Turkish people. It is also true for the Persian, because when Kurds gain this status, peace will come to the Middle East. Unless Kurds are free, there can be no democracy in the Middle East."

A longstanding alliance between Turkey’s AKP government and the Barzani administration had been witnessed until a recent independence referendum for Iraqi Kurdistan was held in September 2017, despite Ankara’s criticism.

Prior to the referendum, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a pro-Kurdish umbrella organization including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), stated that the PKK militants would not withdraw from Sinjar despite threats of military intervention from Turkey and Mesud Barzani’s regional government in Iraq. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on March 26 that Ankara would exert all necessary efforts to push members of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from Iraqi Sinjar if Baghdad fails to do so independently.