HDP will ‘put the brakes’ on Erdogan’s runaway rule, observer says

Huseyin Aykol, who has been working for  the Kurdish press  for 25 years and is co-editor of the pro-PKK Ozgur Gundem, has been covering the rallies for next Sunday’s historic local elections, in which a pro-Kurdish party is fighting for a seat in the parliament for the first time. Aykol, who has been reporting on the pre-election rallies from across Turkey, believes that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will get the 10 percent of the votes it needs to enter parliament. He says that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is supposed to be neutral but who has been rallying crowds for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost the confidence of Kurdish voters, first  over the president’s  stance over Kobane, and second because of the aggressive campaign he has fought for his old party. Aykol spoke to Rudaw in Istanbul:  

Rudaw:  What is your impressions from the field about the HDP’s  passing the election threshold?

Huseyin  Aykol: It would pass. That is according to my impression, and that of all of our other friends who are reporting from across Turkey.  

Rudaw: At this point, do you think it was a risk for the HDP to be going to the elections as a party?

Huseyin  Aykol::  At first I was really concerned, like many others, that  it could be wrong to take such a decision, based on the nearly 10 percent of votes that Selahattin Demirtas received during the presidential elections -- because there were protest votes of the CHP voters in it against the CHP candidate.

Rudaw: Who will be the winner of the HDP-AKP competition in Turkey’s southeast, the Kurdish regions?

Huseyin  Aykol: I think the HDP will be the victorious party. Firstly, the HDP will take back the seats that the AKP snatched from it because of the election threshold. Moreover, the fact that the wind is blowing in favor of the HDP would increase its votes. Plus, many Kurds who used to vote for the AKP would not so anymore because (President)  Erdogan’s ‘Kobane is falling at any moment’ joy really hurt and offended  them.

 Rudaw: Is Erdogan’s propaganda, appearing at rallies with a Kurdish Koran, affect the religious Kurdish voters? Then, Demirtas also began to use a religious discourse. Would that help get more votes?

Huseyin  Aykol: Erdogan is the one who is against education in Kurdish, and who said, ‘There is no such thing as a Kurdish problem.’ Therefore,  a Kurdish Koran won’t bring him gain. On the other hand, the majority of the Kurdish voters are religious, yet they have been voting for the parties that were in line with the HDP. Thus, for Demirtas and his predecessors, religion is not something that they have just remembered. Yet, a religious competition was never tolerable for those parties.

Rudaw: How are voters affected by the attacks against the HDP offices?

Huseyin  Aykol: In the Kurdish regions it has the opposite effect: it motivates people to vote for the HDP. Yet, in the west, it can cause some uneasiness, and that’s what the AKP is up to. They are trying to say, ‘The HDP is not an umbrella  party with many different political entities, it is the PKK.’ However, the PKK has been practicing a ceasefire for some years and wants to solve the Kurdish problem in a democratic way.

Rudaw: If the HDP enters the parliament, how would this affect the Kurdish problem?

Huseyin  Aykol: Positively, of course, because it would empower the HDP as an interlocutor. But more importantly, it will control Erdogan’s mindset, which is like a truck going downhill without a brake. A form of coalition would bring some kind of check and balance to the AKP.

Rudaw: What if the HDP does not make it to parliament? There are claims that a Kurdish parliament would be announced in Diyarbakır? Do you think this is realistic?

Huseyin  Aykol: As all the surveys are showing, the HDP will pass the threshold. If not, that means its votes were stolen. That would enormously harm the democracy in Turkey and cast a shadow on its legitimacy. On the other hand, at present the Kurds are mostly governing themselves as a result of the municipalities they have gained through elections. Therefore, I don’t think that a Kurdish Parliament will be established in Diyarbakir, there is no need to do this.

Rudaw: Do you think the isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is weakening the HDP’s election campaign?

Huseyin  Aykol:I don’t think so. On the contrary, it is making the Kurdish people tense and that is not a good thing for any government. Thus, the  reaction votes against the AKP are increasing.

Rudaw: If the HDP makes it to parliament, Demirtas has promised that his party would refuse to cooperate with the AKP, even to solve the Kurdish question. What would be PKK reaction to this?

Huseyin  Aykol: The solution of the Kurdish problem means  the democratization of Turkey, yet the AKP and its superior mind, Erdogan, moved away from democracy -- by such actions  as the Internal Security Act -- and they continue to do so. Therefore, if the AKP turns around 180 degrees and turns its back on Erdogan by pledging to embrace democratic rules, everybody would help them. Nevertheless, I am not optimistic about the AKP.