The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) appear to be making tactical plays to win Kurdish voters over in the rerun, but voters in Istanbul believe these moves will have no effect on the outcome.

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) on May 9 ruled in favor of the AKP’s appeal to annul the March 31 mayoral election in Istanbul, in which the main opposition party’s candidate Ekrem Imamoglu declared victory by a small margin.

Just hours before the YSK’s decision was made public, the lawyers of Abdullah Ocalan organized a press conference and announced that they had met the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) at Imrali prison for the first time since 2011.

While some journalists said Turkish authorities had sanctioned the meeting to let Ocalan send a message to his supporters to end ongoing hunger strikes in prisons, the timing of the two events nevertheless prompted suspicions that the AKP’s main aim was to reach out to Kurdish voters in Istanbul who supported Imamoglu in the March 31 elections.

Cevat Aydogan, a repairman, and his wife Pervin Aydogan, both supporters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said such tactics would not persuade Kurdish voters to shift their votes on June 23. “The AKP lied to the Kurdish voters every time, tried to trick them. There is nothing the AKP can give to the Kurdish voters except lies,” Cevat Aydogan said.

Since he came to power in 2003, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched two peace processes in Turkey to solve the Kurdish question. In 2009, Erdogan, the Prime Minister at the time, initiated a process of talks between Turkey’s intelligence service and the PKK leadership to end the armed clashes in Turkey’s southeast that started in 1984 and have led to the death of some 40,000 people.

However, this initiative abruptly ended when eight PKK militants were allowed to enter Turkey from Iraq and were cheerfully welcomed by Kurds in the south eastern province of Diyarbakır. The incident shocked Turkish society, and the government could not continue the process due to widespread reactions against it.

In 2013, Erdogan announced the start of a new peace process. Ocalan declared ceasefire in 2013 with a letter read during Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır. But the talks failed, and in 2015 the two sides found themselves propelled back into conflict under the pressure of the Syrian conflict and domestic politics.

Pervin Aydogan recalled that this was not the first time the ruling party pushed an election rerun. In 2015, the AKP lost its parliamentary majority in elections on June 7, while the predominantly Kurdish Democratic People’s Party (HDP) passed the 10 percent electoral threshold, gaining 80 seats.

The election results marked a significant change in the AKP’s Kurdish policy. The AKP regained its majority in snap elections held on November 1 the same year after launching military operations in urban centres of southeast Turkey against what the authorities called members of the PKK.

“He could not put up with 80 seats won by the HDP. He organized fresh elections on November 1. He wants to repeat the elections until he wins - can you call this a democracy?” Aydogan said, referring to the Turkish president. “We are ruled by a person who has no respect for the law”.

Following a failed coup attempt in 2016, the ruling party forged an alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and launched a widespread crackdown against the opposition under a two-year period of emergency rule.

As a result, the Turkish government replaced more than 90 elected HDP mayors in east and southeast Turkey, while senior members of the party, including the former chairman Selahattin Demirtas, were imprisoned over terror related charges.

While heading the HDP, Demirtas surprisingly gained popularity among Turkey’s secular voters as a young, dynamic politician. His popularity strengthened in March 31 elections, as he sent a message from his prison cell calling on to Kurdish voters to support the opposition’s mayoral candidates in western parts of Turkey to form an anti-fascist bloc.

“The Kurdish voters in the past repeatedly fell into the AKP’s traps,” Pervin Aydogan said. “We are indebted to Selahattin Demirtas for the support of Kurdish people to the CHP. Demirtas has more influence on Kurds compared to Ocalan,” she said.

Mahsun Bati, a 24-year old voter from the south eastern province of Mardin, said he would vote for Imamoglu, even if the elections were repeated 10 times. “I cannot accept the President and his close circle describing those that do not vote for the AKP as ‘terrorists’,” he said.

“Letting Ocalan see his lawyers will not affect Kurdish voters. The old Kurds are gone now. They will miss the Kurds who obeyed in the past whenever a message was sent from İmralı prison,” Bati said.

“The Kurdish people love Selahattin Demirtas so much. Even if they let Ocalan see his lawyers 100 times or 200 times, the choice of Kurds is clear; it is democracy,” he said.

According to some voters in Istanbul, there are similarities between Demirtas and Imamoglu, who in fact was a largely unknown politician before the March 31 elections. However, the AKP’s appeal has made Imamoglu a popular politician, as he calmly managed the process and continued sending reconciliatory messages.

“Both of them stand firm against Erdogan,” Batı said, referring to Demirtas and Imamoglu. “Both of them are affectionate, inclusive, and unifying,” he said.

Hasan Ecevit, another voter who is originally from Mardin, said there was no point in expecting democracy from a dictator, adding that he would vote for Imamoglu on June 23 as he did on March 31. “We want change, no discrimination. Ekrem Imamoglu is a patient and affectionate man; he talks like Selahattin Demirtaş,” he said.

Murat Eklem, a 41-year old voter originally from the eastern province of Elazig, said the CHP has to change its policies towards Kurds. “Selahattin Demirtas said what the Kurds should do. The Kurds’ way is the path to democracy. I do not think that the Kurds will give credit to Ocalan’s words from this point on,” he said.

Eklem predicts that Imamoglu will win the election on June 23 with 65-70 percent of the votes. “He will receive significant number of votes from the AKP supporters”, he said. “I own a small business and talk to hundreds of people every day. My friends, who are AKP supporters, say they will vote for Imamoglu.”

Some AKP supporters confirmed Eklem’s predictions. Mehmet Yesiltas, who supported the AKP’s candidate Binali Yildirim on March 31, said this time his vote would be for Imamoglu.

“They made a mistake. Imamoglu is a very patient man, he struggled within the limits of the law,” Yesiltas said. “I believe Imamoglu will win by a large margin on June 23. I felt sorry for Imamoglu, though I am an AKP supporter.”

Mustafa Turkmen, a 67-year old voter, said the ruling party had forced people to vote for the left. “The man won, how can you seize a right that was won. Let him rule the city for four, five years,” he said, referring to Imamoglu. “

Ahval

Reporter’s code: 50101