[NEWS ANALYSIS] BDP plays all trump cards for elections to prove itself

The goal of the party is to increase its number of deputies in Parliament to 30. The BDP, which has nominated Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Emine Ayna and Nursel Aydoğan from Diyarbakır, also cooperated with Kurdish political groups that do not toe the same line as they do and with socialist movements. Participatory Democracy Party (KADEP) leader Şerafettin Elçi, who is a leading actor in Kurdish politics and who is known for his conservative stance, is the BDP’s independent deputy candidate from Diyarbakır. Journalist Altan Tan, who is close to religious groups in the region, is also an independent candidate for the BDP from Diyarbakır.

There are some strategies behind these moves by the BDP. The population of Diyarbakır has increased almost threefold in the past 20 years because of migration. People who were forced to leave their villages or who could not continue their lives in their hometowns due to clashes between security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during the 1990s moved to Diyarbakır. A considerable number of people whose sense of belonging to the Turkish state was weakened gathered in Diyarbakır. A leading figure in the Kurdish political movement, Zana is an important personality who attracts these people. In addition to pro-PKK groups, Zana, who recently defended Kurdish singer Şivan Perwer when he was threatened by the PKK, is also able to appeal to those who are proud of their Kurdish identity but also oppose armed clashes.

Another independent candidate from Diyarbakır, Hatip Dicle, is currently under arrest and is being tried in the ongoing trial of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban arm of the terrorist PKK. He is a figure much liked by radical groups. Ayna and Aydoğan are also able to get votes from the BDP grass roots and to appeal to Kurdish women in particular.

Elçi and Tan are two figures who can reach out to those outside of the BDP’s grass roots. This picture reveals the BDP’s plan to garner as many votes as it can. The BDP aims to get the biggest victory of its and its predecessors’ history in the elections by appealing to both hawks and doves, Kurds who do not follow the BDP line and religious groups.

It is also possible to see a similar strategy emerging in Mardin as well. The party that nominated the leader of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP), Ahmet Türk, for his hometown of Mardin plans to have at least three deputies from the province.

The BDP also has an independent deputy candidate of Assyrian origin, lawyer Erol Dora from Mardin, which has the largest Assyrian population in the country. Another BDP-supported Mardin candidate is Gülser Yıldırım, a KCK suspect. Speaking to reporters after filing an application with the YSK to run in the elections, Türk recalled earlier remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who once said his party has more Kurdish deputies than the BDP and that they receive more support than the BDP. “We will take this trump card from the prime minister,” he said.

In Tunceli, which is predominantly Alevi, Alevi folk music singer Ferhat Tunç will seek to become a deputy with the support of the BDP. The BDP, which managed to have its Tunceli mayoral candidate elected in the 2009 local elections and which currently has a deputy from the province, lost its power in the province to some extent after Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu assumed leadership of the CHP last year. In last year’s Sept. 12 referendum on a set of government-sponsored constitutional reforms, the majority of Tunceli voters said “no” as the CHP wanted and did not boycott the referendum as the BDP called for. The BDP now wants to regain the votes it lost in Tunceli with the nomination of Tunç.

What about İstanbul?

In addition to nominating its current İstanbul deputy Sabahat Tuncel and former BDP İstanbul provincial chairman Mustafa Avcı, the BDP cooperated with leftist figures for İstanbul, which has the largest Kurdish population, at 2 million. Writer and director Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Labor Party (EMEP) leader Levent Tüzel are two other independent deputies supported by the BDP in İstanbul. Tüzel who was an independent candidate from İzmir in the 2007 parliamentary elections but could not be elected will now seek election with the support of the BDP. As for Önder, a columnist with the Radikal daily, he is known to be a victim of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d’état. He plans to get leftist votes in İstanbul.

Hakkari and Şırnak are also among the provinces where the BDP seeks to have more than one deputy. These two provinces, which lent strong support to the BDP in its call for a boycott of the Sept. 12 referendum with more than 90 percent of the voters refusing to cast a vote, are regarded as a “liberated zone” by the BDP. The aim of the BDP in Hakkari is to have all of three independent candidates elected. BDP Co-chairman Selahattin Demirtaş, who entered Parliament from Diyarbakır after the 2007 elections, will this time run in the elections for Hakkari. Another BDP-sponsored candidate from Hakkari is Esat Canan, an ethnic Kurd and former CHP deputy for Hakkari.

Canan came to prominence when he disagreed with his party on the infamous Şemdinli scandal. He questioned the role of JİTEM, an illegal group inside the gendarmerie, in the 2005 bombing of a bookstore in which two noncommissioned army officers were caught red-handed. He later parted ways with the CHP and joined the DTP, but he was also expelled from the DTP when he criticized the enthusiastic welcome of a group of terrorists who surrendered to Turkish security forces in late 2009. He is now an independent candidate from the BDP. The third Hakkari candidate of the BDP is Kurdish writer and journalist Adil Kurt.

As for the BDP’s Şırnak deputy candidates, current Şırnak deputy Hasip Kaplan and former DTP Deputy Chairman Selma Irmak will run as independent deputies in the elections from this province. Irmak is also currently under arrest as part of the KCK investigation. The BDP, which has 61 independent candidates from 39 provinces, followed a similar strategy in other provinces as well. The party that wants to get the support of Kurdish and Alevi voters in Malatya nominated director Gani Şavata as an independent deputy. Journalist Ertuğrul Kürkçü will also run in Mersin as a deputy candidate.

The BDP nominated KCK suspects Dicle, Irmak, Faysal Sarıyıldız, İbrahim Ayhan, Kemal Aktaş and Gülseren Yıldırım for the elections, but did not nominate any BDP mayor who is under arrest as part of the KCK probe. A large number of Kurdish politicians, including several BDP mayors, have been taken into custody as part of the KCK investigation, which started in December 2009. The BDP protested the arrest of its “elected mayors” during the operations and said the KCK investigation is the government’s method of suppressing its politicians, denying any links between the suspects and any terrorist organizations. These mayors include Batman Mayor Nejdet Atalay, Diyarbakır’s Kayapınar Mayor Zülküf Karatekin, Şırnak’s Cizre Mayor Aydın Budak, Şanlıurfa’s Suruç Mayor Ethem Şahin and Diyarbakır Mayor Vekili Ali Şimşek.

Aktaş, who is planned to acquire parliamentary immunity in the BDP with election to Parliament, is mentioned as a key suspect in the KCK probe. According to the indictment, he is responsible for the KCK’s political organization and is accused of forcing mayors from the DTP to swear they were attacked by the PKK.

The BDP has defined its deputy candidate list as a “picture of Turkey.” Although it is open to debate to what extent this discourse reflects the truth, it is also uncertain how the BDP grass roots will approach the figures included in the list from various circles. Recent remarks by Demirtaş are important from this perspective: “Every single colleague nominated for the elections should be embraced by our people [Kurds] in every region. They should work for the elections hand-in-hand without causing controversy.”