Green Left Party renews support to Kılıçdaroğlu despite reserves

ANKARA

The Green Left Party (YSP) has announced its renewed support to Nation Alliance’s joint presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu after he allied with the nationalist Victory Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ.

“The regime created by [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan is not an option for us. Our mere objective is to change this regime,” Pervin Buldan, the co-chairperson of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), along with the spokespersons of the YSP, said at a press conference on May 25 in the Turkish capital Ankara.

The HDP, at the risk of being permanently shut down by the Constitutional Court due to its alleged links to the PKK, is running in these polls under the name of the Green Left Party.

The YSP and HDP leaders held the press conference to disclose their decision regarding the May 28 presidential runoff polls after Kılıçdaroğlu signed a protocol with Özdağ. The protocol the two men agreed on stipulates the latter’s support to Kılıçdaroğlu, but the protocol includes items that concern the HDP and YSP leaders.

The protocol suggested that mayors whose links with the terrorist organizations are confirmed through a court decision will be removed from the office and a trustee will be appointed by the government.

“We have made our criticism against this article quite clear. We want to emphasize once again: Those who seize the political will of the Kurds do in fact take hold of the rights and freedoms of all the peoples of Türkiye,” Buldan said.

She also criticized that the protocol suggests sending all the immigrants back to their countries in one year. “Let’s underline that using the issue of refugees or migrants for political gains is wrong and inhumane,” she added.

But, despite these objections, Buldan said her party’s stance regarding the elections has not changed.

“We will go to vote in full,” she said, calling on the people to cast their votes for Kılıçdaroğlu in the May 28 polls.