Kurds Can Have "Carte Blanche" in Turkey

• 03.05.2015, 11:06
•  Region,  World

Opposition parties in Turkey continue to blame the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for making the so-called "hidden agreement" with the Kurds. On the occasion the leader of main opposition party,  Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, again criticized Erdogan’s seeming efforts to make a deal with the Kurds labeling them as "more than election propaganda":

"Let me tell you bluntly. There is election cooperation between the AKP and the HDP (Kurdish the Peoples’ Democratic Party) and they want to continue with it," - Kılıçdaroğlu said on March 3, in his weekly address to CHP deputies at parliament, Hurriyet reports. 

Referring to the recent call of the jailed PKK (the Kurdistan Workers' Party - outlawed party in Turkey) leader Abdullah Öcalan to organize a meeting of senior actors of PKK in Iraq to discuss the issue of laying down the arms, Kılıçdaroğlu noted: "I do not believe peace will come with such an understanding. A process that is built on mistrust will not bring peace to Turkey," - the same source reports.

At the same time Turkish opposition leader did not hesitate in his speech to try to  please the Kurds in order to win their support on the eve of election  by stating that  the CHP stands as the sole party to resolve the Kurdish issue.  Kılıçdaroğlu assured Kurdish citizens that the CHP does not consider anyone "second-class" citizens, but simply demanded a "first class democracy for all."

But what is the so-called "hidden agreement" that the Turkish opposition continuously blames the ruling AKP party to be engaged in?

The answer is clear: now in Turkey we witness the "competition of power" between the main political parties on the eve of upcoming general elections in June of this year. The opposition in Turkey posits against continuing non-official negotiations between Erdogan and Öcalan that started in 2013 and along with other reasons has been continuously used as a "playing card" in the hands of ruling party to win the Kurdish electorate. Thus naturally enough the opposition parties try to deprive the AKP of its '"playing card" trying to persuade the Kurds not to believe in Erdogan’s sincerity and to join them in the struggle against him.

 Apart from this simple competition of power, the most interesting thing is a unique opportunity presented to the Kurds on the eve of June general election in Turkey: if they manage to get united and pass the threshold of 10 percent to be presented in the Turkish parliament as a party, they will have а carte blanche vis-à-vis both Turkish ruling and opposition parties. In this case only the Kurds will get more tools to at last ensure the protection of their rights in Turkey.