BRUSSELS — Landmark presidential and parliamentary elections that will determine the future course of Turkey, a major regional power and a critical member of the NATO alliance, are due to take place on May 14.

Turkey will either continue its downward spiral into economic decline and authoritarianism as it drifts ever closer to Russia under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or shift back toward the democratic path and economic orthodoxy under a new government. For the first time, after more than two decades of Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, the opposition led by Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has a shot at winning both races. However, it can only do so with the support of Turkey’s third-largest faction, the Kurdish-led People's Democratic Party (HDP).

One of the biggest challenges currently facing Kilicdaroglu is how to secure the HDP’s backing without alienating nationalists within his own party, the six-party opposition alliance known as the “Table of Six” and the broader public.

The HDP is facing closure on the grounds that it takes its cues from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a claim HDP leaders deny. Scores of HDP lawmakers have been prosecuted and jailed on those same charges, together with democratically elected HDP mayors who were ejected from office and replaced by government appointees.