Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party changes name, elects new co-chairs

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Green Left Party on Sunday changed its name and elected new co-chairs and party leadership assembly during a congress in Ankara.

The Green Left Party launched its long-anticipated congress, during which members of the congress voted on renaming the party to the Peoples’ Equality and Democratic Party (HEDEP).

Congress members elected Tulay Hatimogullari and Tuncer Bakirhan as the new co-chairs of the party, as well as an 80-member party leadership assembly.

Newly elected HEDEP co-chair Hatimogullari said in a speech during the congress that the way towards peace “goes through a solution to the Kurdish issue in Turkey,” while co-chair Bakirhan vowed to reclaim the municipalities taken over by the Turkish government, in the upcoming local elections in March 2024.

Following the 2019 local elections, the Turkish interior ministry removed about 30 mayors of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for terror-related charges. Six mayor-elects were prevented from taking office, as they had previously been removed from office during states of emergency imposed after the failed 2016 coup. 

“In this election, we will not only send the trustees [pro-government mayors] back to Ankara, but we will win municipalities all over Turkey,” said Bakirhan.

Earlier this year, HDP decided to enter May’s parliamentary elections under the umbrella of the Green Left Party, following a party shutdown case against the former at the Turkish constitutional court.

On May 14, Turkey held parliamentary and presidential elections wherein the HDP lost six seats as compared to the 2018 polls. The party managed to secure 61 out of the 600 seats in the legislature. The party was criticized for endorsing opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the presidential election and not running a purely pro-Kurdish campaign. Following their poor performance in the election, the party opted to hold a congress.

In June party co-chairs Mithat Sancar and Pervin Buldan decided to step down from their positions, and in August HDP announced in a statement that it would merge with the Green Left Party.