Turkey’s alliance of six opposition parties is in a war of words over the role of the country’s largest pro-Kurdish group, part of an escalating debate that can only benefit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of critical elections due to be held by June 2023.

Meral Aksener, the leader of the right-wing nationalist Iyi or Good Party, declared during an internal party meeting on Sept. 6 that “we will not be at the same table” with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and that “the HDP cannot be at the same table as us.”

Aksener was responding to comments by a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). CHP lawmaker Gursel Tekin had asserted in a Sept. 5 television interview that HDP members could be appointed as ministers in a government to be formed by his party and other opposition groups. His words triggered a flurry of angry tweets from Iyi officials. Aksener’s statement gave them an official seal of approval.

The HDP, the third-largest party in the Turkish Parliament, is accused of advocating on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. Countless HDP officials and sympathizers including former co-chair Selahattin Demirtas are serving lengthy prison sentences on thinly evidenced convictions. On Sept. 3, HDP lawmaker Semra Guzel was arrested as she allegedly sought to flee the country.