The Kurds may determine the winner in Sunday's elections in Istanbul

2024-03-26 17:02:52, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Kurds may determine the winner in Sunday's elections in Istanbul

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his AKP party's candidate for mayor of Istanbul

Local elections are held in Turkey on Sunday. The vote is expected to be an indicator of support, or lack thereof, for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. One of the races that has aroused interest is the one for Istanbul, when Kurdish voters are expected to play an important role. Many of them appear to have decided to put aside party differences and support President Erdogan's main opponent, dashing his hopes of retaking the city he once led.

Voters for the pro-Kurdish DEM party were essential to securing victory for Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in 2019 municipal elections that shocked Mr Erdogan and ended the rule of his AKP party and their Islamist predecessors in Istanbul. This victory gave the opposition a significant power during these last five years.

"The main opposition party CHP on the one hand and the ruling party AKP and its coalition partner MHP on the other say that 'no matter what we do to the Kurds, they are happy and continue to support us.' But from now on we are telling them No, we will vote for our interests," according to Kurdish politician Leyla Zana.

But the opposition's crushing defeat in May's presidential election to Mr. Erdogan changed the political landscape, leaving voters in the pro-Kurdish DEM party torn over how best to support the cause of the Kurdish community.

In Istanbul, polls show that Republican People's Party candidate Imamoglu and his AKP opponent have a narrow margin, while the pro-Kurdish party candidate is lagging behind. This fact has left supporters of the Kurdish party facing a dilemma: should they vote with their hearts or with their heads?

Mr. Erdogan's government has suppressed Kurdish parties since 2015, when a peace process to end the decades-long insurgency led by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) failed.

"Local leaders in the Kurdistan region, who are appointed by the Turkish government and not elected, hinder Turkey's progress and harm freedom of expression. We do not expect this to happen again. We trust ourselves, we trust our people. We trust the votes we will receive in the elections, the votes that will come out of the ballot boxes," says the DEM party candidate for mayor of Diyarbakir, Serra Bucak.

The DEM party, which is the third largest party in parliament with about 10 percent of the deputies, is the successor of the HDP party, which is likely to cease operations after a trial over its links with Islamic militants, which the party denies.

The HDP party has been weakened by the thousands of arrests from its ranks and the dismissal of its mayors after the last election, which is expected to influence its supporters to oppose the AKP throughout the country and support the pro-Kurdish party. DEM in the Kurdish-dominated southeast and in Dyarbakir, one of the largest cities in the region.

"During the last elections, we voted against the AKP party because it appointed its own reliable people to leadership positions. For this reason, we supported the Republican People's Party, the main opposition party, but this party has not taken any positive steps and has not done anything because of the fear of the government, it has not even done as much as the AKP. That's why we came up with our candidates this time," says Diyarbakir resident Alatin Gunej.

President Erdogan, who served as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998, criticized this "dirty bargain", as he put it, in an attempt to stir up tensions between the parties.

The candidate of the DEM party for mayor of Istanbul, Meral Danis Bestas, rejected the claims that the parties are playing tactics.

"During the past two elections, we took some decisions to pave the way for democratization, based on some strategic actions. However, we do not have a mission or role to constantly support other parties, this contradicts the nature of politics, we are following our own path, the third path," says the candidate of the DEM party for mayor of Istanbul, Meral Danis Bestas.

Ms Bestas's stance is supported by DEM party voters who want to show their strength after the coup they took from power, when state-appointed officials replaced elected Kurdish mayors in the south-east of the country.

In recent weeks, prominent Kurdish political figures have called for a new peace process around their demands for greater cultural autonomy for the Kurds, who make up about 15-20 percent of Turkey's 85 million population.

Ankara accuses the pro-Kurdish party of links to the PKK, which Turkey, the United States and the European Union have declared a terrorist organization after the conflict left more than 40,000 people dead. The HDP denies having any connection with this party.

Candidate Bestas says that currently there are no signs of a return to a peaceful process, but that democratization requires the solution of the Kurdish issue./ VOA