The Pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) signaled further cooperation with Republican People's Party (CHP) as imprisoned HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş called on his fellow party members to attend CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's justice meeting convention on Aug. 26
According to Turkish media, Demirtaş asserted that everyone in favor of democracy should attend the CHP convention to be held in the western province of Çanakkale. "The AK Party's [Justice and Development Party] attempts to divide democratic authority should be prevented," Demirtaş was quoted as saying on Friday.
Demirtaş's call on HDP members to join forces with the CHP at the convention is the latest move by the HDP to forge closer ties withKılıçdaroğlu's policies. In recent months, HDP deputies showed support for Kılıçdaroğlu's justice march from the capital Ankara to Istanbul.
The CHP has been backing the HDP, as well. The CHP extended its support to the HDP when some CHP deputies earlier in August visited their HDP counterparts in Istanbul where HDP deputies have been organizing Watch for Justice events held across the country, calling for a return to the reconciliation process.
Previously, CHP Diyarbakır head Mehmet Sayın paid a visit to HDP members participating in the Watch for Justice in Diyarbakır.
Demirtaş's recent call for a close alliance with the CHP is not the first instance of such cooperation. Two days after the June 7 elections, CHP Deputy Şafak Pavey congratulated HDP Demirtaş in front of members of the press, saying: "We shook things up quite well."
Meanwhile, HDP Deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder called on the main opposition party to form a joint bloc for the presidential election in 2019. Speaking to PKK-affiliated Dihaber news, Önder said that the new bloc should reach a consensus and aim to form the government in the 2019 elections.
"Forming a bloc with the HDP, the CHP and many other partners is a must. If it is achieved, it shouldn't be an alliance of slogans, but rather an alliance of action and a joint program," he said.
Also last year, then HDP Group Deputy Chairman İdris Baluken asked CHP deputies to join the HDP in drafting a bill calling for a case regarding the lifting of parliamentary immunities to be referred to the Constitutional Court.
