Prominent Kurdish politician in Turkey announces political retreat
3 Min Read
Jailed former co-chair of pro-Kurdish HDP apologizes for his performance in the recent elections that saw the opposition losing to the ruling AKP party.
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Former co-leader of the Turkish pro-Kurdish HDP party, Selahattin Demirtas, during an interview in Ankara, Turkey on July 30, 2015 (Reuters)
Turkey's prominent Kurdish political leader and former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party HDP Selahattin Demirtas announced on Thursday from behind bars that he will retreat from the political scene "at this stage" in time.
Demirtas, who has been jailed since 2016 under accusations of being directly affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party PKK - labeled by Ankara as a terrorist group - made his statement on social media through his lawyers.
In a Twitter post, the Kurdish politician said he will be sharing two paragraphs from an interview that will be published on Thursday in Arti Gercek, thanked constructive criticism directed toward him, and announced leaving political activities "at this stage."
Read more: 'Democracy won, Western media lost': Erdogan makes victory speech
Merhabalar. Yarın Artı Gerçek'te yayımlanacak röportajımdan iki paragrafı sizlerle paylaşıyorum:
— Selahattin Demirtaş (@hdpdemirtas) May 31, 2023
"Ben kendi adıma, halkımıza layık bir politika ortaya koyamadığımız için içtenlikle özür diliyorum. Pratikteki çabalarımla bu eksiklikleri giderme sözü veriyorum.
Ayrıca, bana…
In his interview, Demirtas analyzed the reasons behind the shortcoming of the HDP in the recent elections, stressing that it was not only because of "unfair competition", calling it a "simplistic" view.
“The alarm bells have been ringing for quite some time now, and these election results serve as a final warning. The way to silence the alarm bells and play victory songs lies in the accurate analysis and proper action,” he said.
He held the party's disorganized campaign and lack of professionalism as the main reason behind the low outcome of votes for HDP in 87 districts, adding that the ruling Justice and Development Party AKP party and its Nationalist Movement Party MHP ally have been campaigning since 2018.
“Our party intensified its campaign one month before election day, but it was still a half-hearted and disorganized effort. On the other hand, the AKP-MHP government has been engaged in a form of [social] engineering … particularly over the past five years,” he continued.
Read more: The implications of Erdogan's victory on Western stakes: BBC
Not relieving himself from responsibility, the Kurdish politician called on his party colleagues to "engage in self-reflection because they haven’t correctly deciphered the AKP-MHP system and failed to make timely and appropriate moves. They also haven’t taken measures against the perception operations conducted against me.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the ruling AKP party, won his reelection in the May 28 runoffs against pro-West rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Erdogan will remain president of Turkey until 2028 after winning 52.10% of the vote, giving him a new term in power after he originally became president in 2014.
Turkey's Green Left Party YSP and pro-Kurdish HDP supported the opposition's Nation Alliance candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
