THE ELECTION TRAIL : NEW POLITICAL PARTIES IN KURDISTAN (TURKEY)

Emergence of new Kurdish parties will not affect election result in Turkey

28.02.2014 – Hemin Khoshnaw – BasNews, Erbil – Kurdish politics in Turkey has entered a new phase that has lead to the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) creation of a new Kurdish political party.

Following the establishment of Kurdish Hüda-Par (Free Cause Party) an offshoot of Hezbollah, in Diyarbakir some fear violence might start again between Hüda-Par and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Hüda-Par is attempting to attract the votes of religious Kurds in the Kurdish populated areas by standing against the BDP and claiming that BDP is a Marxist party and therefore people should not be involved with it. While there is speculation that Hüda-Par are currently re-organizing themselves, a number of political analysts do not think that this is possible. “I don’t think that these rumors are reliable because they cannot do that without support. They have to announce that they are an offshoot of Hezbollah party, and apologize for murdering Kurdish politicians as well as intellectuals,” lecturer at Dijla University, Prof. Ahmed Yildrim, told BasNews.

Yildirm believes that none of the parties will be able to win municipalities in the upcoming election, except for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and BDP.

Lawyer and Political Analyst, Bulent Yilmaz, noted that there are other parties beside AKP and BDP yet they have been unable to emerge and influence politics in Turkey. The main influential parties in Turkey are still AKP, BDP and PKK; for this reason the emergence of new Kurdish parties will not affect the elections result in the Kurdish areas of Turkey.

Other Kurdish parties in Turkey are attempting to unite under the name of Kurdish Democratic Platform (KDP), with Kurdistan Democratic Party in Turkey (KDPT), and have chosen not to run in the upcoming municipal elections in order to be better prepared for the 2015 elections. Sertaç Bucak, a strong candidate for the presidency of the KDP, noted that: “we will do what is in the interest of the Kurds. We will participate in the parliamentary elections.”  – AKP PM, Metin Külünk, told BasNews: “BDP’s politics is key for Kurds and AKP works hand in hand with BDP to have close ties as well as supporting Kurdish rights.” Yildirm says other Kurdish parties are unpopular because they do not support Kurds in all of their causes and they rule top to bottom, which is not what the people want.