As Turkey’s controversial president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mulls plans to boost his executive powers the country’s Kurds have emerged as key players in a high-stakes gamble that could either bolster the country’s shaky democracy or suck it into chaos.

The drama is centered on parliamentary elections to be held June 7. Few doubt that Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has held power since 2002, is headed for a fourth straight electoral victory. But it is unlikely to muster the 376 seats needed to unilaterally rewrite the constitution in ways that would enable the president to tighten his grip. Should Erdogan cling to his ambitions, the AKP will need to turn to another party for its support. And this is where the Kurds enter the picture.

The Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP), the largest Kurdish-dominated political bloc, has announced plans to contest the polls as a party rather than field independents as it has in the past. The Kurds had resorted to this tactic to circumvent the minimum 10% of the national vote that a party needs to win seats in the 550-member legislature.

The 10% rule was introduced by the army when it last seized power in a direct coup in 1980. It was designed to shut the Kurds out of mainstream politics and blunt ethnic nationalism. It has had the opposite effect.