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PKK won't support Erdogan's presidential bid

The Kurdistan Workers Party says the Erdogan government has done little to advance peace talks and thus won’t be receiving PKK support in the presidential elections.
A female member of the anti-Iranian group, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), stands near a poster of jailed  Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in the grounds of their base deep in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, on May 5, 2014. The PJAK, is a Kurdish political and militant organisation which has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian government to seek cultural and political rights and self-determination for Kurd

QANDIL, Iraq — A senior PKK official has ruled out supporting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the presidential elections. Riza Altun, a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), told Al-Monitor, “There is no such thing as supporting the AKP administration and siding with it during the presidential election.”

Kurdish support is important for Erdogan’s presidential candidacy. His advisers and members of the AKP realize that without Kurdish support, he will not be able to become the next president. That’s why some say 47 Kurdish activists were released on April 13 as a gesture toward the PKK.

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