Turkey: The pro-Kurdish HDP formed its own autonomous alliance with smaller parties

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the one hand calls them terrorists or collaborators of terrorists and on the other hand says that he must discuss with the Kurds and the pro-Kurdish parties, without however making any substantial move, while the forerunner of the largest Kurdish party, of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) is still in prison.

The opposition, for its part, being so diverse, cannot openly prioritize them. Neither Meral Aksener, president of the far-right Good Party (IYI Parti), nor Temel Karamolaoglu of the Eudaimonia Party (SP) would ever accept this. Accordingly, the president of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) of the Official Opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, never invited the Kurds to the meetings for the formation of the anti-Erdogan front. The reason is the nationalist feeling of the Turks, which would receive a great blow and which would then appear to be instigated by the Kemals. At the same time, an alliance with the Kurds, even if it would seemingly give victory to Erdogan’s opponents from now on, would create obligations and demands, while it would be fodder for the Turkish president to call the opposition alliance “traitors who collaborate with terrorists”.

Thus the members of the Turkish Workers’ Party (TİP) issued a call to all Kurdish political parties, which gathered on Thursday and formed the alliance called the Labor and Freedom Alliance.

According to the announcement, the alliance includes:

Labor Movement Party (EHP)
Labor Party (EP)
People’s Democratic Party (HDP)
Federation of Socialist Assemblies (SMF)
Turkish Workers’ Party (TİP)
Social Freedom Party (TOP)

Petros Kranias