On Wednesday, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it would not field a candidate in the Turkish presidential election – the first round of which is scheduled for May 14. He thus gives tacit support to the candidate of the opposition alliance against outgoing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is running for re-election. "Turkey needs reconciliation, not conflict," said the party's co-chair, Pervin Buldan, saying she wanted to end President Erdogan's "reign".

The opposition alliance, called the "Table of Six", is made up of the six main opposition parties. Its presidential candidate is Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP, Kemalist).

With a score of 8.4% in the last presidential election and more than 11% in the parliamentary elections, the HDP is now the third largest political force in Turkey. After the July 2016 coup attempt, the HDP claims that 26,000 of its activists and supporters were imprisoned. Its former leader, Selahattin Demirtas, has been imprisoned since November 2016 for "terrorist propaganda".

For Didier Billion, deputy director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris), and specialist on Turkey, the HDP's decision not to present a candidate for this year's presidential election is "crucial".

France 24: With the HDP's decision, does the opposition bloc strengthen its chances against the Turkish president?

Didier Billion: The HDP's decision not to present a candidate in the presidential election is crucial because we know that the result of this election will be very close. Since the announcement of Kemal Kiliçdaroglu's candidacy, it seems to me that the result will be played out to little. When a party like the HDP, whose electorate is around 10% (of the Turkish electorate, editor's note) approximately, does not present a candidate, it is quite decisive and crucial for the coalition of the Table of Six.

However, within the coalition, there is a party, the Iyi Party (the "Good Party", in English), from the extreme nationalist right. Some MPs and personalities of this party are very nationalist and take a rather dim view of this indirect support of the HDP. Anything that remotely resembles hypothetical concessions on the Kurdish question is a problem for them.

That is where the difficulty lies. The HDP is a very pro-Kurdish party, and this can lead to turbulence within the six-party coalition. Perhaps, for example, nationalists who were about to vote for Mr. Kiliçdaroglu will change their minds, considering that he is too supported by the HDP...

The fact that the HDP does not present a candidate does not automatically mean "10% more for Mr Kiliçdaroglu".

How do the Kurds vote in Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey?

It would be wrong to think that, as one man, the Kurdish electorate votes for the HDP. The Kurds are divided. They are not all behind the HDP, even if a good part of them vote for it. In the "Kurdish zone" (in the east and south-east of Turkey, editor's note), we note that this electorate is divided between the HDP and the AKP (Justice and Development Party, President Erdogan's party).

Those who vote for the HDP want to assert identity, cultural and linguistic claims specific to the Kurds. Other Kurds, very pious and conservative, vote for the AKP. In this region of Turkey, the other parties, including the CHP, have almost no voice.

What does the Kurdish minority expect from this election?

To put it simply, the Kurds who usually support the HDP are part of a logic of transformation of society, with the objective of being able to benefit from a form of decentralization of decisions, but they do not demand independence or autonomy. They claim the opportunity to practice their language or reclaim their culture, which is not quite identical to that of the Turks.

The HDP plays the current sequence very well. They stated that they were not putting forward a candidate, and that they had no demands, for example regarding possible positions. It's really in the name of "everything but Erdogan." They are not beholden to anything, but the others, if elected, will be beholden to the HDP.

In this election, does the "Kurdish question" go beyond the Kurdish area in the south-east of the country?

40%, maybe even 50% of Turkey's Kurds no longer live in the east or south-east of the country. Some have emigrated to major Turkish cities (Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir) or have gone abroad (to France, Germany...). The Kurdish population is no longer concentrated only in eastern and south-eastern Turkey. These men and women, Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin living in these large cities or abroad, do not think exactly like those who have remained in their city of origin.

There is a form of evolution, of declination of their perception of belonging to the Kurdish people that has changed. They do not live in the same places and daily life is not the same. It is therefore very complicated to talk about the Kurds in general and what they expect from this election. Being Kurdish is not a political category. Being Kurdish induces a relationship to political life, to society, to the Turkish state. It depends on each individual.

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