Pro-Kurdish HEDEP changes strategy ahead of Turkish local elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Co-chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) on Sunday hinted at a possible change of party strategy in the upcoming local elections next year, adding that the party aspires to govern in cities throughout Turkey.

“A policy based solely on ensuring someone’s loss  will not be enough for us. We aspire to govern together [with other parties],” said HEDEP co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari at the party’s women’s assembly meeting, regarding the party’s strategy in preparation for theTurkish local elections to be held in March 2024.

Last week the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party changed its name from  Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to HEDEP at a party congress in Ankara.

In the 2019 local elections, HDP, now HEDEP,  decided  not to field candidates in the major cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Antalya. As a result of this strategy, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost all four provinces to the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), marking the first time in 15 years that the AKP lost in Ankara and Istanbul.

Hatimogullari said that the party’s top priority in the upcoming elections will be reclaiming the municipalities taken over by the Turkish government, and winning over new ones.

Following the 2019 local elections, the Turkish interior ministry removed about 30 HEDEP [then HDP] mayors for terror-related charges. Six mayor-elects were prevented from taking office, as they had previously been removed from office during states of emergency imposed after the failed 2016 coup.

Earlier this year, HEDEP [then HDP] decided to enter May’s parliamentary elections under the umbrella of the Green Left Party, following a party shutdown case against the former at the Turkish constitutional court.

In May’s presidential and parliamentary elections, HEDEP [then HDP] leaders unconditionally supported opposition candidate and CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Turkey’s presidential race. This unconditional support did not benefit the pro-Kurdish party and resulted in a loss of votes according to Vahap Coskun, writer and associate professor at Dicle University’s law faculty in Diyarbakir.

“The unconditional support given to the opposition did not benefit HDP at all. It did not broaden its political area, in contrast, it was narrowed. And this negatively affected HDP’s votes,” Coskun told Rudaw English on Sunday, referring to HEDEP with its former name, adding that the loss of votes in the parliamentary elections motivated the party ranks to question its strategies.

HDP lost six seats in May as compared to the 2018 polls. The party managed to secure 61 out of the 600 seats in the legislature. The party was criticized for unconditionally endorsing Kilicdaroglu in the presidential race and not running a purely pro-Kurdish campaign.

Coskun said the HEDEP ranks do not support the complete anti-AKP and anti-government policy run by the party since 2015, adding that this will result in the party fielding candidates in every province in Turkey for the local elections, not supporting the opposition unconditionally, and even holding meetings with the ruling parties which might lead to HEDEP being able to hold onto the municipalities it will win.

“Some direct or indirect negotiations can be held between HDP and the government. In other words, as a reward for HDP not supporting the opposition, the government may give up on appointing trustees to municipalities won by HDP,” he said.