Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member Duran Kalkan has criticised the Labour and Freedom Alliance for its components’ bureaucratic structures and other weaknesses, in an article published in the May issue of Serxwebûn newspaper.
“Although they define themselves as left, socialist and libertarian, they are detached from society,” said Kalkan. “Their bureaucratic structures and approaches are very prominent. They rely on the ready-made mass created by the Kurdish Freedom Movement; they wrongly assume that the mass is ready anyway, and that there is no need for too much effort.”
Kalkan emphasised the need for education, organisation, and outreach to the masses for electoral success, saying, “These elections have shown that those who fail to educate and organise the masses cannot win. In other words, votes are not a piece of cake. But those who work hard, go to the masses, educate and organise people, prevail.”
The elections were not conducted on a fair and equal footing and their results “must be evaluated considering the manipulations, frauds, injustices, oppression and arrests” that occurred during the process, Kalkan said. Without disregarding these factors, he identified three distinct geographical regions in the electoral landscape: “One of these parts is Kurdistan. North Kurdistan [the southeastern provinces of Turkey] has again put forward its own map… Another is the line extending from the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts to Istanbul. This is the area where the Republican People’s Party (CHP) or the Nation Alliance has been successful… In the middle of these, from Central Anatolia and the Black Sea to the interior of the Aegean, a third region emerges.”
Kalkan further criticised The Kurdish Alliance for Freedom and Democracy, comprised of pro-Kurdish political parties in Turkey. Duran argued that the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) alliance with the Islamist Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR) which has been active in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey, undermined the Kurdish bloc. “[The Kurdish Alliance] could not attract the Islamic circles outside the left,” said Kalkan, calling for a more comprehensive alliance.
