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Karayalçın: CHP twice discussed electoral alliance with DEHAP
BDP deputy Sırrı Sakık stated last week that the CHP had asked HADEP, one of the many predecessors of the BDP, to nominate 20 PKK militants as candidates for the position of deputy in the 1999 general elections. Sakık's remarks fueled a heated debate between the BDP and the CHP in Parliament. CHP Deputy Chairman Mustafa Özyürek denied Sakık's revelation, saying his party had never worked in cooperation with anyone who refused to publicly denounce the PKK as a terrorist organization.
However, in earlier remarks to Today’s Zaman ahead of the 2007 parliamentary elections, Karayalçın had said the CHP met with the now-defunct Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP), another predecessor of the BDP, in 2004 to discuss an election alliance, but they could not reach a compromise.
Former DEHAP Deputy Chairman Veli Büyükşahin also confirms that they met with the CHP. “We did not only meet in 2004, but also ahead of the 2002 parliamentary elections to discuss an election alliance,” he said.
 Murat Karayalçın |
In the meantime, the man who organized the meeting after the CHP made the proposal to HADEP, Cemil Aydoğan, also confirmed Sakık’s remarks, the Yeni Şafak daily reported yesterday. Aydoğan told the daily that Baykal had told him that they could bring in “those from the mountains” as candidates.
The debate erupted last week while Parliament was debating a censure motion submitted by the opposition against Interior Minister Beşir Atalay.
The CHP alleged that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Atalay pressured judges not to arrest a group of terrorists who surrendered to Turkish security forces at the Habur border gate last October. The CHP’s censure motion was rejected in Parliament after fiery debate, with 146 voting in favor and 310 voting against.
A group of 34 people affiliated with the PKK surrendered at the Habur border gate on the Turkish-Iraqi border in October, as the Turkish government was preparing to unveil measures to broaden the democratic rights and freedoms of the country’s citizens. Eight of the group’s members came from the Kandil Mountains, where the PKK maintains a camp. The rest came from Makhmour, a refugee camp in northern Iraq. None were arrested.
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