As the political debates continue in Turkey during the ongoing state of emergency, the attempts to gather the opposition parties in a common liberal line are accelerated with the aim of forming a wider block against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president and chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Following Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) "justice congress" in late August, some Turkish media sources have claimed that the CHP and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) will form an alliance.
Talking to Iraqi Kurdish media network Rüdaw on Sept. 11, CHP’s deputy chair Erdal Aksünger said, "I think all the platforms and sides seeking for a true democracy, human rights, liberty and the freedom of the press should come together. No matter who, HDP or other parties, we all should come together on the same platform."
On the other hand, Osman Baydemir, the spokesperson of pro-Kurdish HDP party, has also shared his views: "Firstly, all the democratic forces in Turkey should become partners in common principles and common grounds particularly for equality in electoral opportunity, electoral safety and the freedom of expression in an attempt to reinstate an ordinary regime in Turkey excluding the state of emergency."
Saying that Turkey will, unfortunately, be exposed to more pains by the government as long as this partnership is not formed, Baydemir continued, “HDP is very clear and frank at this point. Equality, freedom, justice and de-confliction are indispensable for us. In light of all these principles, HDP will be on the side of the initiative for justice, equality and peace with whoever extends the hand.”
JAILED HDP LEADER DEMİRTAŞ’S MESSAGE
Meanwhile, Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed co-chair of HDP, has penned an article for daily Cumhuriyet newspaper on Sept. 12, reflecting his views regarding Turkey’s current political atmosphere and future elections.
Indicating to Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections that will be held in 2019 or the shorter term, Demirtaş has argued that HDP takes its legitimacy from the people.
"Those who make calculations for the upcoming elections in Turkey had better give up acting as if HDP does not exist. A realistic roadmap cannot be drawn without designating common principles, without taking HDP’s anticipations and vision of future into account. HDP’s first option is ‘to resist fascism even if it becomes isolated’. Our current agenda should not be the elections because there are definitely no conditions for free lections in the country," Selahattin Demirtaş continued in his article.
CHP LEFT DOOR OPEN TO ALL KIND OF ALLIANCES
"It is not a matter of left and right, but it is a matter of our society’s future, our children’s future", Kılıçdaroğlu previously told daily Hürriyet in an interview, signalling that his CHP party would form an alliance with other parties for the 2019 presidential elections.
However, Kılıçdaroğlu left the door open to all sorts of alliances from pro-Kurdish HDP to Turkey’s emerging political party, the Central Democratic Party, under the lead of Meral Akşener, an ultra-nationalist former interior minister expelled from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) for organizing an intra-party dissident group against MHP head Devlet Bahçeli who supports President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"Turkish people have to determine their own fate. Either we will stand for democracy, or we will stand for the one-man regime,” CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu has recently said, with reference to Turkey’s fraudulent constitutional referendum held on April 16, 2017.
