CHP head accuses PKK of hurting HDP

THE HAGUE/LEVERKUSEN

CİHAN photo

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is hoping to ensure the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) under the 10 percent electoral threshold by fighting Turkey’s security forces, the head of Turkey’s biggest social democratic party has said.

“The address for resolution should be parliament,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu reiterated in an interview with the BBC’s Turkish service.

“I believe [the PKK] is complicating the solution of the issue. In my opinion, terror acts launched by the PKK have entirely put the HDP into a difficult position. I personally believe that [the PKK] has a goal to leave the HDP under the threshold,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in the interview in The Hague on Sept. 25 during a tour to meet with Turkish citizens abroad.

“In a way, the PKK’s policy has emerged as a policy which runs parallel to the policy of [President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s] palace,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

According to HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, there has been a particular effort to keep his party out of parliament. However, Demirtaş has put the blame on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for such efforts, calling him “the palace” – a practice echoed by Kılıçdaroğlu.

“Except for the palace, nobody in Turkey has the authority and right to make decisions at the moment. Only one person is making decisions about the country’s future. They call this ‘progressive democracy, patriotism and nationalism,’” Demirtaş said in a speech delivered late on Sept. 26 during a mass gathering with voters in Leverkusen. 

“They call us ‘traitors.’ They say we are ‘the enemy’ of Turkey. The one who rules the 80 million-person country on his own and makes decisions on his own is supposed to be a democrat. They have been engaged in a quest for formulas that would leave the HDP under threshold by imposing the Nov. 1 election and ignoring the people’s will,” Demirtaş said.

In the June 7 parliamentary election, the HDP seized enough seats to deprive the Justice and Development Party (AKP), founded by Erdoğan, of a working majority for the first time in more than a decade. Winning 12.96 percent of the votes, the HDP obtained 80 seats in parliament.