Erdoğan’s victory opens wounds, cracks in Kurdish left
The presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey came at a time of great pressure on the Kurdish left: with the party’s leadership in prison for seven years, local councils under government intervention, a court case open to close down the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and reduced freedoms to protest in the streets or to publish in the Kurdish language. During the election campaign, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blamed his main challenger in the polls, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, of PKK links, and accused him of enjoying “terrorist support.” That climate is compounded by internal political differences within the HDP itself, which have become evident after the elections, and could call into question alliances between some leaders and the party’s board. Keep reading