MAINZ, Germany – Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party is urging European countries to increase pressure on Ankara, warning that if the Kurdish conflict intensifies Europe will have to brace for another deluge of refugees.
Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), made a weekend visit to Denmark and Germany – both host to large Kurdish and Turkish immigrant populations -- to gain support ahead of crucial snap elections on November 1.
On Sunday, he called on the German government to play a greater role in bringing about a peaceful solution to the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, which reignited in late July.
"We need the support of the Federal Republic of Germany in particular for the resolution of the Kurdish question," Demirtas told reporters in the northern German city of Hamburg.
"If battles between the Kurds and the government in Turkey intensify, it could trigger a mass departure from Turkey into Europe," Demirtas warned, hinting at the last decades, when hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled their homeland for Germany and other European countries.
"Germany could and should play a more substantial role here than previously,” he added.
In mid-September, Green party leader Cem Özdemir demanded a new venue for the G20 summit later this year as a way of raising pressure on Turkey, which is hosting the meeting.
Tensions between Turks and Kurds reached a boiling point after the Turkish government imposed a curfew early this month in the Cizre district of the country’s southeastern Kurdish Sirnak province.
According to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 75 Turkish soldiers and 14 Kurdish guerrillas were killed in the clashes.
Opponents of the Turkish government blame President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP for reigniting the war. However, Ankara holds the PKK responsible, as it confirmed the assassination of two Turkish officers in July this year.
In recent statements, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who also met Demirtas last week, warned Turkey of overreacting in its crackdown on the PKK.
“With all due respect for an adequate response to terrorist attacks, I hope that the government in Ankara endeavors to calm the situation and dispenses with overreactions,” he was quoted as saying.
Germany is usually cautious in its policies toward Turkey and the Kurds, because of Turkey’s NATO-membership and the large immigrant populations of both communities in Germany. However, in Iraq it supports the Kurds against the so-called Islamic State by delivering weapons and training the Kurdish forces.
The early elections in Turkey follow polls held in June, in which Erdogan’s party failed to gain enough votes to form a majority government. Coalition talks with all parliamentary factions were not successful and brought no results.
Erdogan re-lit the war against the PKK after the HDP victory in the June 7 polls meant the AKP did not have the majority to back him in his bid to change Turkey’s government into a presidential system, with him at its powerful helm.
In Copenhagen earlier in the weekend, Demirtas said that the HDP victory at the polls had opened a new future to Turkey.
“On June 7, a huge democratic strength was born. HDP opened a new door, showing the future,” Demirtas told a crowd outside the Danish parliament. “But unfortunately, someone could not accept the election results on June 7 and insisted that Turkey needs a new election,” he said, referring to Erdogan.
He also indicated he feared possible electoral fraud and harassment during the polls, the first in many years under warlike conditions.
The HDP has applied to the Supreme Electoral Council for camera surveillance of ballot boxes at all stages, except durig voting. "But our application was rejected," Demirtas said.
Pia Olsen Dyhr, the chairwoman of the Danish Socialist People's Party (SF), expressed her admiration and “thanked the Kurds for their struggle against ISIS.”
“Our party has always supported the Kurds. It is important to force a peaceful resolution through,” Dyhr said. “Despite the high threshold, it will be possible for you to get a victory, once again.”
Kurds number some 30,000 in Denmark and in the June 7 polls the HDP was the second largest party in Denmark. In overseas voting, it got 36.82 percent, or 3,468, of the votes, while the AKP got 42.10 percent, or 3,966 votes.
Demirtas said he is confident of winning more votes this time, maybe “doubling the turnout.”
“We expect greater participation from Denmark than during the June 7 election,” he told the crowd. “We won on 7 June. We will also win on November 1.”
Our reporter in Copenhagen contributed to this report.
