Could an alternative Kurdish party succeed in Turkey?
Two Kurdish parties are merging and others are striving for a joint front, but there are doubts as to whether any effort to form an alternative Kurdish party is feasible.
Ankara’s political corridors are filled with rumors that Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is likely to split and that an alternative Kurdish party is being prepared, but many observers say a new party is unlikely.
Speculation was triggered by the recent remarks of party deputy Altan Tan, who said, “We are at a fork in the road in Kurdish politics.” He warned that if the country’s mindset of war doesn’t change and if divergent leftist, socialist and secular narratives continue, Kurds may face complicated developments.
Erdogan Toprak, deputy of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), claimed that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is trying to set up an Islamist Kurdish party, though others dismissed the idea.
Toprak said, “The ruling party, as part of its Kurdish policy, seems determined to launch an alternative party they can control. On June 11 in Sanliurfa, it convened anti-PYD (Democratic Union Party) Kurdish political parties to reorganize regional Kurdish politics in cooperation with Massoud Barzani,” president of Iraqi Kurdistan and leader of Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). “Simultaneously, the AKP intensified its efforts to establish a Kurdish AKP that will bring together ‘believer Kurds’ in the southeast.”
