Will Erdogan court Kurds after his party's election loss?
The Kurds' role in Turkey's recent local elections made them both losers and winners. What will their road map be now?
By backing the opposition, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) used a surgical strategy in Turkey's local elections March 31 to help defeat the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Kurdish votes were the key to the AKP's loss in many areas, including big metropolises such as Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, and other important centers such as Antalya, Mersin and Artvin.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s narrative that a win for his party would be necessary as a “matter of national survival” didn't bring the AKP the victory he sought. This narrative referred to the threat he said is posed by the Kurdish movement led by the HDP inside the country and by the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Syria on Turkey's border.
