Turkish authorities are set to investigate alleged “terrorist propaganda” during the opening of the newly founded Green Left Party’s (YSP) election bureau in southeastern Diyarbakır province.
As YSP officials and Remziye Tosun, Diyarbakır representative of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is widely criticized for having links to the PKK terrorist group, inaugurated the bureau together in the central Yenişehir district on Friday, Tosun declared, “Iraq, Syria, Kurdistan will win after May 14!” during a passionate speech, prompting Diyarbakır's Chief Public Prosecutor's Office to launch a probe into the participants of the event for “spreading propaganda for terrorist groups.”
The HDP and its four other Labor and Freedom Alliance partners have agreed to nominate their candidates under the YSP logo in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Still, the express endorsement the HDP allegedly gives and receives from terrorists has been a prickling point for the party.
The HDP is currently facing an imminent threat of closure in an ongoing lawsuit calling for a shutdown of its activities mainly due to its alleged “collusion with the PKK and its affiliates, transferring funds to terrorists and aiming to destroy and eliminate the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation.”
In its election manifesto, the party declared they would end Türkiye’s counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Syria if they came to power and pledged to give a chance to PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan for parole eligibility.
The HDP was among the parties the opposition bloc led by Republican People’s Party (CHP) courted and is estimated to draw around 10% of the vote, according to the best possible projections by survey companies. It is not pursuing the ambition of fielding its candidate. Still, it is all but sure to endorse CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leading contender in the elections against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The YSP’s manifesto on “foreign policy” promises to end military operations in Iraq and Syria and the “armament” policy of NATO, of which Türkiye is a member that “aims to surround Russia.”
Türkiye launched three major operations in Syria’s north against Daesh and the PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing, the YPG, which still controls a vast swathe of land near the Syrian-Turkish border. Similarly, the Turkish military routinely launches operations against PKK members in Iraq, hiding in mountainous regions of the country’s north controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The operations are critical for Türkiye to thwart cross-border attacks by the PKK and to stop the infiltration of terrorists through its southern border.
The YSP also pledges to end the practice of closure of political parties, eliminate the voting threshold that leaves parties below a specific rate of the vote out of Parliament and annul presidential decrees that helped the government conduct a more effective fight against terrorism following the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The HDP also often comes under fire from Erdoğan for blatantly abetting terrorists and acting as their extension in the Turkish Parliament.
Among the past remarks of party leaders proving the close ties to the terrorist group is a statement from co-Chair Pervin Buldan, who confessed to previous contact and communication between the party and the terrorist group and praised jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and his role in the party's foundation by rejecting the fact that the PKK is a terrorist group.
HDP mayors and local officials have been found guilty of misusing funds to support the PKK and provide jobs to the terrorist group’s sympathizers.
A terrorist recently arrested in Diyarbakır even confessed that PKK terrorists received training at the HDP district headquarters before they joined the group.
