In parliamentary elections held in Turkey
last June 7, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) received nearly 13
per cent of the popular vote, giving it 80 seats in the 550-member National
Assembly.
It marked the first time that a primarily
Kurdish party had cleared the 10 per cent electoral threshold to enter
parliament.
Indeed, the HDP’s electoral success is the
main reason that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was unable to
retain its parliamentary majority. Not since 2002, when it first came to power,
has the AKP failed to win an outright majority.
This enraged Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and provoked
angry post-election rhetoric against Kurdish nationalists, because Erdogan wants to transform Turkey’s parliamentary system
of government into a presidential regime, which would boost his power
enormously.
As a result, another parliamentary election
is scheduled for Nov. 1, giving Erdogan a second shot at becoming the dominant
figure in Turkey. He wants the AKP to regain its previous majority, to enable
parliament to amend the constitution and make his position more dominant.
As well, although the HDP has supported a
peace process by the government with Kurdish rebels that began in 2013, it has
been accused of maintaining links with militant organizations, most notably the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The HDP was involved in negotiations
with both the government and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Ergogan is unlikely to accept HDP demands
for a devolution of powers to regional governments or any other
decentralization program that strengthens the territorial autonomy of Kurdish
areas. Nor will he agree to Ocalan’s proposal for “democratic confederalism,” a form of local
government to be exercised by citizens alongside state institutions.
Meanwhile,
a cycle of violence has gripped Turkey since mid-July, signaling the end of the
fragile ceasefire observed by the PKK and the Turkish military since 2012. Over
a hundred soldiers and police, and hundreds of PKK fighters, have been killed,
along with dozens of civilians.
Erdogan has
launched military assaults on the militants’ hideouts in southeastern Turkey
and in Iraqi Kurdistan.
On Oct.
10, two explosions hit a peace rally in Ankara calling
for an end to the renewed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government.
Almost 100 people were killed, and more than 240 were injured.
Among those taking part in the rally were
members of the HDP. The party has accused the government of escalating violence
to try to push the party below the 10 per cent electoral threshold in the
forthcoming election.
“Ankara is the capital of Turkey. If a bird
flies here, the state knows about it,” remarked Selahattin Demirtas,
co-chairman of the HDP. “There was a rally of 100,000 people but no security
precautions were taken.”
Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s
Turkey researcher, has noted the escalation of violence, along with a general
deterioration of the human rights situation. “We have seen waves of arrests of
political activists under vague antiterror laws and further attacks on freedom
of expression, with a spike in the number of cases of ill treatment of
detainees,” he stated.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, on the
other hand, blamed the attack on both the Islamic State (ISIS) and the PKK. But
some analysts are skeptical about claims of Kurdish rebel involvement.
As well, ISIS and Kurdish fighters are battling
each other across the border in Syria. Yet in response, Turkish jets did not
bomb ISIS; they bombed the PKK.
In any
case, the Turkish government will eventually have to address the demands of its
large Kurdish minority, including assigning greater powers to the
Kurdish-majority regions in the southeast.
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