Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) on Sunday called on other opposition parties to form a united front against the government’s plans to steal the 14 May elections.
The party protested against the police operation that started early on Sunday against the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), a member of the left-wing Labour and Freedom Alliance.
Sunday’s police operation followed the arrests of Kurdish politicians, journalists, lawyers, and members of civil society organisations on Tuesday and Saturday.
The government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right ally the National Movement Party (MHP), which has lost the support of the people and its social legitimacy has “speeded up political operations only a few days before elections,” the HDP said in a statement.
“We have expressed this before, let’s stress once again: These waves of arrests are a plot against the will of the voters,” it said.
“These attacks are election operations by the government, they are a coup attempt against the will of the people carried out by those who see the voters’ preferences as a coup, they are organised preparations to steal the ballot boxes,” the HDP said.
The party said the government and the Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who called the 14 May elections a coup attempt several times this week, have become a polling security issue for the public, adding that the judiciary and security forces are committing crimes by taking part in the operations.
“Our party, our constituents, the powers of struggle in Turkey will resist this coup till the very end,” the HDP said.
“This is our call to all political parties, the opposition and the democratic public. Stand up against this election plot,” the party said.
“This is about all of us,” it continued. “Every moment of silence in the face of these intimidation operations widens this fascist spiral so that it will include all groups,” they added.
Despite ongoing police operations against the Kurdish and leftist parties and personalities, most opposition parties have remained silent on the issue so far.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the presidential candidate of the opposition parties and the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) avoided commenting on the government’s latest crackdown in an interview with Habertürk television on Saturday night, despite several questions on the HDP, which has called on its voters to vote for Kılıçdaroğlu on 14 May in the presidential race.
The politician instead talked about injustices in Turkey in general, saying that Turkey should comply with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights calling for the release of former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been kept in prison since 2016.
