HDP meets other pro-Kurdish parties over Turkey referendum

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – A delegation of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Tuesday met with other Kurdish parties to convince them to vote no in an upcoming referendum on a parliament-passed bill giving unprecedented powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The HDP, accompanied by its regional sister party Democratic Regions Party (DBP), met with representatives of the Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK), Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR), Kurdistan Democratic Party/North (PDK-T), and the Azadi Movement in Diyarbakir.

The leftist HDP is the only pro-Kurdish party present at the Turkish Parliament as the second largest opposition block.

The group has long defended denying Erdogan an executive presidency that would see him effectively circumvent the Parliament in ruling the country.

Kurdistan24’s Diyarbakir Bureau said the HDP delegation made up of lawmakers also visited several NGOs in the city, calling on them to oppose Erdogan.

Other Kurdish parties from left to center-right that differ from the HDP with their open demands of autonomy or eventual independence for the Kurdistan of Turkey have not clearly stated their positions.

There have been calls for a Kurdish boycott in the referendum on the grounds of neither siding with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) or its far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) that passed the bill.

No Kurdish party has announced a boycott.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party (Huda-Par) Zekeriya Yapicioglu on Wednesday declared they would support the yes campaign.

The referendum is set to take place on April 16.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany