Second pro-Kurdish party announces opposition to Erdogan empowerment
The center-left HAK-PAR’s leader Refik Karakoc said the constitutional reform package to be voted in April brought “nothing new” for the Kurdish people.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Another pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, the Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR), on Sunday called for voting “no” in an upcoming referendum regarding legislative powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
During a press conference in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, the center-left HAK-PAR’s leader Refik Karakoc said the constitutional reform package to be voted in April brought “nothing new” for the Kurdish people.
Karakoc stated the 18 articles-bill passed in January by the Justice and Development Party (AKP)-dominated Parliament was “no different” than the 1982 constitution written by a military junta suppressing Kurdish rights, culture, and language, said Kurdistan24’s Diyarbakir bureau.
HAK-PAR’s decision to side with the “no campaign” came a week after their meeting with the Turkish Parliament’s second-largest opposition block the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) which has assumed a leading role in denying Erdogan an executive presidency.
Erdogan, who defends the constitutional changes on the grounds of political and economic stability, on Saturday appealed to the Kurdish and HDP voters to say “yes” in the referendum, urging national unity.
The constitutional reform provides Erdogan with powers such as dissolving the parliament, declaring a state of emergency, issuing decrees, and forming a cabinet as well as appointing top judicial, bureaucratic, and military officials without a parliamentary vote of confidence.
The relatively small HAK-PAR stated Turkey needed a new constitution.
They added the proposed changes by the AKP and the leadership of its far-right ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) failed to deliver that.
HAK-PAR demands federalization of Turkey and autonomy for the Kurdish-majority regions in its charter.
“The central constitutional crisis in Turkey is not whether its system of governance is parliamentary or presidential. What matters for Turkey is to be truly democratic,” read a press release on the HAK-PAR website.
As the HDP and HAK-PAR declared allegiance to the no campaign, only one Kurdish party, the Islamist Free Cause Party (Huda-Par), has so far said it would support Erdogan’s bid for a stronger presidential office.
Only about 25 percent of Kurds would vote yes in the referendum, revealed a survey released last week.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Hesen Kako in Diyarbakir contributed to this report)