QANDIL, Iraq — A senior PKK official has ruled out supporting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the presidential elections. Riza Altun, a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), told Al-Monitor, “There is no such thing as supporting the AKP administration and siding with it during the presidential election.”

Kurdish support is important for Erdogan’s presidential candidacy. His advisers and members of the AKP realize that without Kurdish support, he will not be able to become the next president. That’s why some say 47 Kurdish activists were released on April 13 as a gesture toward the PKK.

But the PKK is cautious and wants the Turkish state to take more constitutional steps to recognize the Kurds and release imprisoned Kurdish politicians and activists. “They haven’t taken any of those steps that they were supposed to take,” Altun said. 

The most important point for the PKK is constitutional reforms granting the Kurds political and cultural rights and a legal guarantee for negotiations between the PKK and the state, which began in 2009 as part of the peace process.