The ultra-conservative Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chairman, Devlet Bahçeli, has called those who voted for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the June 7 parliamentary elections, "dishonorable" people. HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş retorted saying: "I return all these words to you a thousand times over."
Until now Bahçeli has been displaying much restraint and political maturity in view of the massive provocations against nationalists in Turkey, but it seems he too has started to lose his nerve. Bahçeli has done a great service to Turkey keeping the hotheads of the MHP off the streets and restraining the MHP youth movement, preventing a seriously explosive situation from getting out of hand and probably turning into a civil war.
However, what he has said about HDP voters who carried the party above the 10 percent national election threshold giving it at an impressive 13 percent with 80 seats in Parliament was wrong.
Some of those who voted for the HDP were in fact people who had voted for left-wing parties in the past but wanted to display a democratic reflex against the 10 percent election threshold, which is clearly undemocratic. Some were those who were angered by the sluggish moves of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on the peace and reconciliation process with the PKK. About 6 percent to 7 percent were those who are hard core Kurdish nationalists who have sympathies with the PKK.
Votes are sacred and valuable. Whoever casts his or her vote performs a duty as a citizen and we have no right to judge their actions if they do not prefer our party or ideology.
Yes, quite a few Turks who protested the 10 percent election threshold with their vote and felt the HDP should have a place in Parliament did vote for the pro-Kurdish party, but today many do have second thoughts because of the rising PKK terrorist activities and the bloodbath the Kurdish terrorists are performing. They are aware that the HDP has not handled the crisis well and that they did not act as a political force that has won the votes of the masses, but acted like a sidekick of the PKK and forgot those who brought them into Parliament. If they will vote for other parties in case of early elections remains to be seen, yet it is clear that the HDP will not get the 13 percent it won if there are early elections.
The HDP should be in this Parliament and should raise its voice, but this should be for the cause of turning the country into a more democratic and free place to live and it should not serve the cause of trying to create autonomous Kurdish entities within Turkey like in northern Iraq and northern Syria.
That is why Parliament should take swift action to lower the 10 percent threshold without any ifs and buts and open the way for true representation of all political ideologies and views. This should be done for the sake of a healthy democracy and for the sake of peace and reconciliation. We should go to the next elections whether they are held later in 2015 or in 2019 with a lower threshold or no threshold at all.
Politicians and people in responsible places should learn to care for their statements and should not create new and unnecessary complications in an already tense environment.
