HDP holds 5th Ordinary Congress ahead of 2023 Turkish elections
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) held its 5th Ordinary Congress on Sunday.
"We are holding this congress one year before the expected date of the presidential and parliamentary elections, and at a time when the HDP is facing a court case for its closure and countless other cases to criminalize our party," read a press statement published on the website of the HDP's Representation in Europe.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is holding its 5th Ordinary Congress in Ankara ahead of Turkey's 2023 elections.
— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) July 3, 2022
📸 Vural Erişmiş/Kurdistan 24 pic.twitter.com/gVMPvcmYAa
"Since the June 2015 elections, the HDP has been under intense attacks from the government. (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and his ultranationalist allies have used all kinds of repressive means to destroy the democratic opposition, and particularly the HDP," the statement added.
Read More: Turkey's ruling parties continue pressure against opposition ahead of 2023 elections: HDP
The pressure has not only targeted the HDP. On May 12, Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals approved a prison sentence of four years and 11 months for Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the İstanbul Provincial Chair of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
The HDP said that over 15,000 people affiliated with the party, including its former co-chairs, parliamentarians, co-mayors, party administrators, and other members, have been arrested since 2016. The crackdown gained pace in the aftermath of the attempted July 2016 military coup against President Erdogan.
"As if these attacks were not enough, the HDP is now facing a closure case, as the governing alliance wants to eliminate it from politics before the next elections," read the HDP in Europe statement.
Read More: Turkish constitutional court accepts indictment to close pro-Kurdish HDP party
The HDP said it demonstrated its kingmaker role in Turkey's politics in the March 2019 local elections, when "our support to opposition (CHP) candidates defeated Erdogan and his allies in Istanbul, Ankara and in many other municipalities in Western Turkey."
Read More: Still, the Kurds vote and are kingmakers in Turkey
"The fear of Erdogan and his allies is that the HDP may play a similar kingmaker role in the next presidential elections, hence their pressures to totally destroy the HDP before the elections," the statement concluded.
Co-Chair Mithat #Sancar at #HDP5thCongress: It frightens and worries them, the fact that we are the strongest alternative to their authoritarian regime. That's why they attack us with all their strength. They think they're going to destroy us. But they will never succeed. pic.twitter.com/ayY6Tq3IXz
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) July 3, 2022
"It frightens and worries them, the fact that we are the strongest alternative to their authoritarian regime," HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar said during the congress. "That's why they attack us with all their strength. They think they're going to destroy us. But they will never succeed."
During the March 2019 municipal elections in Turkey, the HDP, in a gesture with the CHP, did not field candidates in major cities in western Turkey with Kurdish populations.
That move helped the CHP beat the AKP in most of these cities as part of an uneasy de facto alliance with the HDP.
However, it's far from clear if this de-facto alliance will continue and if the opposition will be able to unite in the future and gain enough votes to challenge the ruling alliance between Turkey's far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and President Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).