Kurds need a party that works for an INDEPENDENT KURDISTAN

[Anthea]

Kurdish Islamist party

The leader of the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party (Huda Par) on Saturday said he thinks his party will draw support from voters who are unhappy with both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), whose sister party he blamed for the collapse of peace talks a decade ago

Turkey will hold provincial elections on Sunday. In Kurdish areas in the southeast it is shaping up to be a tight race between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP and the DEM Party.

“We can take votes away from both parties,” Huda Par leader Zekeriya Yapicioglu told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman.

“The election results on April 1 will show that… Those who previously voted for DEM Party and HDP [Peoples’ Democratic Party], or those who had voted for AKP and other parties, will make their dissatisfaction clear and vote for Huda Par,” he added.

Yapicioglu claimed that there has been a campaign to discredit Huda Par for years. The party faces opposition on every side. Ultranationalists criticize it because it is a Kurdish party, Kemalists because it is an Islamist party, while DEM Party considers itself the only representative of Kurds, according to the Huda Par leader.

Yapicioglu blamed HDP for a collapse in peace talks to end decades of bloody conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The peace process started in 2013 under then-prime minister Erdogan and was mediated by the pro-Kurdish HDP, but collapsed in 2015, followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s Kurdish areas.

“If the peace process of 12 to 13 years ago was not ruined by Qandil [PKK’s mountainous stronghold], the PKK, and the leftists at HDP, I believe other steps would have been taken which would have improved the situation of our people when it comes to the Kurdish issue,” said the Huda Par leader.

“We believe the Kurdish issue in Turkey needs to be resolved, otherwise Turkey cannot progress,” he added.

Since July 2015, nearly 7,000 people have been killed in clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK in Turkey and across the border in the Kurdistan Region, according to data from the International Crisis Group.

Yapicioglu accused the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) of attempting to “Turkify” Kurds and denying their existence and said this is why his party supported Erdogan and AKP during the May 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.

“Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been killed due to the ideology of CHP, because it is a racist nationalist ideology. So in order to prevent that ideology from winning the elections, we decided to support the AKP,” he said.

There is a long history of animosity and conflict over Kurdish issues and rights in Turkey. The state has at times gone as far as denying the very existence of Kurds.

Erdogan has been accused of using Kurds for political gain during elections. When his AKP came to power three decades ago, Kurds were provided limited cultural rights. The party has also appointed Kurdish ministers to its cabinets. The incumbent finance and foreign ministers are among them.

But after AKP fared poorly in the last municipal elections, it stripped dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors of their offices because of alleged links with the Kurdish rebels and replaced them with state-linked administrators.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/30032024

[Anthea]

Opposition heads for victory

Ekrem Imamoglu won Istanbul for the opposition in 2019 and has his eye on a second term

Turkey's main opposition party is closing in on victory in the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara, in high-stakes local elections.

Istanbul's opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who won the city in 2019, said that he was "very happy" so far.

A year after Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured a third term as president, he had made it his goal to win back the city where he grew up and became mayor.

Opposition supporters celebrated as Mr Imamoglu closed in on victory.

With 80% the vote counted in Istanbul, he was almost 10 points ahead of his rival from Mr Erdogan's AK Party.

In the capital Ankara, his colleague in the secular opposition CHP, Mansur Yavas, was so far ahead of his rival that he declared victory when less than half the votes were in.

President Erdogan, 70, had led his party's election campaign in Istanbul, vowing a new era in Turkey's biggest city. The outcome was being as a significant blow to the man who has led Turkey for the past 21 years.

Significantly, the opposition CHP was also leading in many of Turkey's other big cities, including Izmir and Bursa, and the resort of Antalya.

Crowds in Istanbul, a megacity of almost 16 million people, gathered outside one of the main town halls. They waved Turkish flags and banners showing Mr Imamoglu's picture alongside Turkey's founding father Kemal Ataturk

"Based on the data we now have, I can say that our citizens' trust and faith in us has been rewarded," he said.

Both Mr Yavas and his Istanbul party colleague are seen as potential candidates to run for the presidency in 2028.

"Everything is going to be great," Imamoglu supporters chanted as they danced to drums and clarinets in Sarachane, one of Istanbul's oldest districts.

Istanbul's incumbent mayor had first used the slogan when he won the city from Mr Erdogan's party five years ago. Some of the banners in Sarachane used his current slogan, "Full speed ahead".

"They're only local elections but the opposition's victory in big cities is a significant show of force against the ruling party," Imamoglu supporter Yesim Albayrak, 25, told the BBC.

I am now hoping the country will become a more secular country, respecting human rights, women's rights and childrens rights

Mehmet Bankaci, 27, told the BBC there was a need for change in Turkey: "If Imamoglu or Mansur Yavas had been the CHP candidate in last year's presidential election, they definitely would have won."

Five years ago, Mr Imamoglu overturned years of AK Party rule in Istanbul with the backing of a unified six-party opposition. But that fell apart in the wake of last year's presidential election defeat and the AK Party had high hopes of overturning his 2019 victory.

Ahead of Sunday's election in Istanbul, the vote was seen as too close to call, with the incumbent mayor facing a strong challenge from AK Party candidate Murat Kurum.

But the ruling party has been unable to shake off an economic crisis that has seen inflation rates of 67% and interest rates at 50%.

Mr Erdogan's AK Party has had more success in areas of the south-east devastated by the February 2023 double earthquake. It is leading in the cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.

About 61 million Turkish voters were eligible to take part in Sunday's election and turnout was estimated at more than 76% across the country's 81 provinces.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68704375

[Anthea]

Mass gatherings banned in Van

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – As a result of the rejection of People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) candidate Abdullah Zeydan and the appointment of Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Abdulahat Arvas as his replacement, the governor of Van on Wednesday imposed a 15-day ban on all mass gatherings to prevent mass demonstrations

Leyla Zana, a Kurdish politician and former Turkish legislator, and a delegation of Republican People's Party (CHP) MPs are also scheduled to visit Van on Wednesday in support of Van's DEM Party candidate.

The preliminary results of the Turkish local elections indicate that Zeydan won with 55% of the vote in Van province. Van is a Kurdish-populated province located in eastern Turkey (Bakur).

The governor of Bitlis issued a similar decision to prevent mass gatherings and protests.

Ali Yerlikaya, the Turkish Minister of Interior, announced that 89 individuals had been arrested on charges of disrupting security.

Protests held in Batman, Gever, Hakkari, Sirnak, Mardin, Diyarbakir, Siirt, Silvan, Izmir, Manisa and Istanbul to support DEM Party candidate

On 31 March, Turkey held local elections in all 81 of its provinces. Thirty metropolitan mayors and 1,363 district municipal mayors were elected, as well as 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors.

Over 61 million people were eligible to vote in the election. Although 100% of the votes were cast, only preliminary results have been announced so far, and the final results will be announced following complaints.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/34 ... or-15-days

[Anthea]

DEM Party candidate appeals

Turkish court’s ruling

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) candidate Abdullah Zeydan, on Wednesday told Kurdistan24 that they had appealed the Turkish court’s ruling in the Turkish Supreme Election Council in an effort to reclaim their rights

"The Kurdish citizens' protest against the ruling is within the framework of the democratic process and we are the owners of the will of our people," Zeydan added.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party, issued a message of protest against the judicial system of Turkey’s ruling, saying those who do not respect the will of the people have not learned a lesson from last year.

Demirtas also called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to accept the will of the people of Van province.

The preliminary results of the Turkish local elections indicate that Zeydan won with 55% of the vote in Van province. Van is a Kurdish-populated province located in eastern Turkey (Bakur).

Meanwhile, the governor of Van on Wednesday imposed a 15-day ban on all mass gatherings to prevent mass demonstrations in support of DEM Party candidate.

Protests hold in Batman, Gever, Hakkari, Sirnak, Mardin, Diyarbakir, Siirt, Silvan, Izmir, Manisa and Istanbul to support DEM Party candidate.

On 31 March, Turkey held local elections in all 81 of its provinces. Thirty metropolitan mayors and 1,363 district municipal mayors were elected, as well as 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/34 ... 99s-ruling

[Anthea]

Turkey bars Kurdish winner

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s electoral body on Tuesday instated the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate as mayor of the Kurdish city of Van after an earlier court ruling invalidated the candidacy of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) candidate, who won the race in Sunday’s local elections

DEM Party announced on Tuesday that five minutes before the end of working hours on Friday, the Turkish justice ministry objected to Van’s court’s decision to reinstate party’s Van candidate Abdullah Zeydan’s suspended rights, with the chief prosecutor’s office appealing to the court to revoke the decision on the same day, rendering his candidacy invalid.

The Van office of the country’s electoral body (YSK) on Tuesday ruled that Zeydan was not eligible to take part in the elections, and handed the mayoralty of the Kurdish city to the AKP candidate Abdulahat Arvas, who garnered the second-highest number of votes.

“We reject the decision of the Van Provincial Election Board to award the certificate of election to the AKP mayoral candidate for the metropolitan municipality of Van, which our party won by a large margin,” the DEM Party stated on X.

“The decision made by the rigged members of Van’s provincial election board with a majority vote is unlawful, illegitimate, and a decision that disregards the will of the people,” added the statement noting that party lawyers already appealed the decision.

“The recent decision is null and void. Zeydan should receive his certificate [declaring his win in the vote] today, and if they fail to provide it, we will initiate the necessary legal process,” Zeydan’s lawyer Mahsuni Karaman told the Turkish news outlet Gazete Duvar, warning that more similar actions might be taken against DEM Party’s elected candidates and provincial council members.

The opposition’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel slammed the decision in a video message on X, labeling it a “disgrace” and an “ambush against the will” of the people of Van.

“If the people of Van elect someone as their mayor by voting three times more [than his rival], then It is our duty to be respectful of this,” Ozel said.

The CHP leader noted that appointing the AKP candidate as mayor contradicts what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday night following the vote when he stated that the party respect the outcomes of the elections.

“I warn him [Erdogan] that stooping to such a thing will render all his words null and void,” Ozel said.

The pro-Kurdish party picked former member of parliament Zeydan to run for the mayoralty of the city of Van as one of its co-candidates, together with Neslihan Sedal, in Turkey’s local elections on Sunday. The party won the province by a landslide, as its candidates emerged victorious across all of the province’s 13 districts, and Zeydan won the metropolitan municipality's mayoralty.

Zeydan, who was arrested in November 2016 and remained in prison for terror-related charges until January 2023, was given a “reinstatement of suspended rights,” meaning clearance to take part in elections, from a Van court in 2022.

According to preliminary results of Sunday’s polls, the DEM party garnered 5.7 percent of the overall votes across the country. The party won the mayoralty of Van as well as nine more Kurdish provinces in the country’s southeast.

In the 2019 local elections, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), DEM Party’s sister party won the mayoralty in eight provinces, only to see dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors ousted from office and replaced with state-linked trustees over the years, due to their alleged links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... 0020420241

[Anthea]

Abdullah Zeydan reinstated as Van mayor

Turkey’s electoral body on Wednesday accepted an appeal by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) protesting a decision to prevent their candidate from taking up his role as mayor of the city despite having won Sunday’s local elections, and handed him the mayoralty

Tensions had risen in Turkey’s southeastern Kurdish province of Van after the justice ministry objected to Van court’s decision to appoint DEM Party’s mayoral candidate Abdullah Zeydan, rendering his candidacy invalid despite winning the election in a landslide and handing the post to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate, who garnered the second-highest number of votes.

DEM Party on Wednesday evening announced that its appeal against the justice ministry’s decision was accepted by the electoral body.

“The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has decided to grant the mandate to our Co-Mayor of Van, Abdullah Zeydan, thanks to the resistance of the Kurdish people, our comrades, friends, and the democratic public,” the pro-Kurdish party said on X.

Following the decision to strip Zeydan of the mayoralty, protests and demonstrations erupted across Kurdish cities. The Turkish interior ministry announced on Wednesday that it had detained 89 protesters across the country for “demonstrating without permission, shouting praises and supportive slogans” of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Despite a ban on protests announced by Van’s governorate the previous day, thousands of protesters poured into the streets and were joined by co-chairs of the DEM Party and several politicians from other opposition parties including the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Workers Party of Turkey (TIP).

“The [people’s] response has been given both at Newroz and here, the Kurdish people's demands for democracy cannot be suppressed by pressure and appointing trustees,” said Tuncer Bakirhan, DEM Party co-chair at the demonstrations in Van.

“Our call to the AK Party government is that as long as you usurp the will of the people, you are doomed to lose,” he added.

Veteran Kurdish politician Leyla Zana who was also among the protesters, called on the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to respect the will of the people of Van.

“When the choice of the Kurds is elected, democracy disappears. Respect the will of these people," Zana said.

According to preliminary results of Sunday’s polls, the DEM party garnered 5.7 percent of the overall votes across the country. The party won the mayoralty of Van as well as nine more Kurdish provinces in the country’s southeast.

In the 2019 local elections, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), DEM Party’s sister party won the mayoralty in eight provinces, only to see dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors ousted from office and replaced with state-linked trustees over the years, due to their alleged links with the PKK.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /030420244

[Anthea]

Turkey imposes travel ban on pro-Kurdish mayors

Turkey’s interior ministry has slapped several mayors of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) with travel bans, a party official announced, stating that the bans were issued without a court order

“In order to prevent the co-mayors … from going abroad to seek resources, establish international relations, and build bridges of brotherhood between municipalities, a travel ban has already been imposed on many of our co-mayors,” said Mehmet Rustu Tiryaki, DEM Party co-chair responsible for local administrations said in a statement read at the Turkish parliament on Monday.

Tiryaki noted that the bans were issued by the Turkish interior ministry without a prior court order.

“This is not even a court decision. No court has issued a travel ban on any of our co-mayors. The interior ministry, with a completely arbitrary decision, has prohibited our co-mayors from travelling abroad,” he said.

Pro-Kurdish media outlet Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reported following Tiryaki’s statement that the Turkish interior ministry issued a travel ban on nine mayors of city and district municipalities in the Diyarbakir (Amed), Mardin and Mersin provinces.

Diyarbakir Co-Mayor Serra Bucak is among those who were slapped with a travel ban.

The Turkish interior ministry has yet to announce the decisions or release a statement.

The Turkish government has recently turned the heat up against the DEM Party and its elected mayors. Earlier this month, a Turkish court sentenced the party’s mayor in Hakkari (Colemerg), Mehmet Siddik Akis, to 19.5 years in prison for alleged affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Akis was removed from his position days before the court ruling and was replaced by a state-appointed trustee.

The removal of Kurdish mayors and their replacement with trustees is not new. Dozens of Kurdish mayors, affiliated with other pro-Kurdish parties, have been dismissed and replaced with trustees for terror-related charges since 2016, with many of them being sentenced to jail. The DEM Party denies any links to the group and maintains it is merely pro-Kurdish.

Thousands of Kurdish politicians and supporters of pro-Kurdish parties, mainly the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which has been rebranded as DEM Party, have been jailed in the last decade for PKK-linked charges. A large number of them remain behind bars.

Last month, a Turkish court concluded a 10-year-old case against dozens of Kurdish politicians for their alleged involvement in deadly protests in 2014, including Selahattin Demirtas, former co-chair of the HDP, who has been in jail since 2016. Demirtas was handed 42 years in prison in what is known as the Kobani case, named after a Kurdish city in Western Kurdistan that came under Islamic State (ISIS) attack in 2014. The demonstrations were in solidarity with Kobani.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... y/24062024