Turkey is heading into the June 24 elections with two major alliances. The People’s Alliance is composed of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the anti-Erdogan Nation Alliance is made up of the Republican People’s Party, the Iyi or Good Party, the tiny Islamist Felicity Party and the Democrat Party.

Now, unexpectedly, a third alliance of Kurdish parties has appeared. The political parties making up the Kurdistan Election Alliance announced they will not only compete in Turkey’s snap elections but hope to take the first step toward national unity among the Kurds of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. So far, the Kurdistan Freedom Party, Kurdistan Socialist Party, Kurdistan Democratic Party of Turkey and Azadi Movement have announced their membership in the new alliance. With support offered by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which has a legislative presence and nationwide structure, the new alliance could become a major actor on Turkey’s political scene.

The alliance has already made some progress on a local level. In the Diyarbakir Chamber of Commerce elections, the Kurds succeeded in defeating the AKP-backed chairman and got their own candidate elected. Can this phenomenon spill over the entire region?

HDP lawmaker Imam Tascier told Al-Monitor that the Diyarbakir Chamber of Commerce elections showed that the Kurds can achieve their goals when they act together. Tascier thinks if the Kurds compete in the June 24 elections as an alliance they can influence the Kurdish base of the ruling AKP as well as Kurdish voters who abandoned the AKP because of its alliance with the anti-Kurdish MHP and those who had not voted for the HDP in the past for whatever reason.