Erdogan equates PKK, pro-Kurdish opposition to court nationalist voters
As municipal elections near, the Turkish president is ramping up his rhetoric against his pro-Kurdish opposition, equating Turkey's third largest party with groups Ankara considers terrorists.
The criminalization of Turkey’s democratically elected Kurdish politicians is continuing full swing with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing the country’s largest pro-Kurdish block of being “equal to” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“It's crystal clear and their leaders admit as much themselves,” Erdogan claimed in an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT on Sunday. Erdogan added that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was no different from the PKK’s Syrian branch, known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Both militant groups are classified as terrorists by Ankara.
