“In recent years, whenever we talk about elections, whenever the [presidential] palace feels it is losing the elections, it starts a collective labeling and treatment of the Kurds as terrorists,” said Kilicdaroglu.
Kilicdaroglu is the presidential candidate of a group of opposition parties called the Nation Alliance that is looking to unseat Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is not part of the alliance, but they have given Kilicdaroglu their implicit support.
At election rallies, Erdogan repeatedly calls Kilicdaroglu the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) candidate. The PKK is an armed Kurdish group that for decades has struggled for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey. It is labeled a terror organization by Ankara.
“Every day, they spend millions of liras to run a smear campaign against me and in doing so they treat millions of Kurds as terrorists,” Kilicdaroglu, said, adding that this is an attempt to manipulate voters.
This is not the first time Kilicdaroglu called out the Turkish government over the country’s large Kurdish population. Following a meeting with HDP co-chairs Mithat Sancar and Pervin Buldan in March, he accused the Turkish government of having double standards when it comes to the Kurdish language, which is restricted in some public settings in Turkey.
“I will not let anyone damage the brotherhood for a few votes,” vowed Kilicdaroglu, pointing out that Turks and Kurds have lived together for centuries.
Kilicdaroglu is the leader of Republican People’s Party (CHP). The party was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern republic of Turkey, and has a checkered history in relation to the Kurds. During CHP’s reign in the 1930s, Kurdish language and culture were forbidden, a ban that lasted for nearly 80 years.
Kilicdaroglu, however, has Kurdish roots and many hope that his election could be a step towards resolving Turkey’s Kurdish problem. He is taking on Erdogan at a time when Erdogan’s popularity is at its lowest, according to opinion polls.
If elected, he and his allies at the Nation Alliance have vowed to abolish the presidency system that was introduced by Erdogan following a referendum, and restore the parliamentary system.
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