Selahattin Demirtas took to Twitter following state-run Anadolu News Agency’s publication on Thursday of a controversial letter penned by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, urging Kurdish voters to remain neutral in Sunday’s vote, a stance contrasting the open support of the opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu by the pro-Kurdish HDP.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ocalan’s letter represented a "power struggle" between the HDP and PKK.
“Let no one have any doubt that I will be on the side of Mr. Ocalan for any kind of initiative for democracy and peace,’’ Demirtas wrote on Twitter, however, added, “I call on everyone and all sides to act more cautiously and not be a part of the psychological campaign.”
Demirtas noted that the battle for power was “foreign’’ concept for the HDP and the party’s leadership would not be part of such a “polemic and game.’’
Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are trying to attract Kurdish voters, who are likely to play a vital role in Istanbul rerun on Sunday, after the country’s election council annulled mayoral elections in Turkey’s financial powerhouse held on March 31.
Ocalan’s letter follows a move by the Turkish government last month to lift the visiting restrictions on the outlawed PKK’s leader Ocalan, who has been behind bars at Imrali prison since his capture in 1999. The PKK is armed group that has been at war for autonomy in Turkey for over 30 years.
Erdogan on Friday met Nechirvan Barzani, the newly-elected president of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, another move to win over Kurdish voters, according to analysts.
Following the 2015 collapse of a peace process between the AKP government and the PKK, Ankara has intensified a crackdown on the HDP, which it accused of harbouring sympathies and acting in the interests of the PKK.
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