Presidential election in Turkey: Kemal Kiliçdaroglu accuses Erdogan of "stigmatising" Kurds

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), on March 25, 2023 in Ankara. REUTERS - CAGLA GURDOGAN

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The candidate of the opposition alliance for the presidential election, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday 18 April of associating the Kurds with terrorism in the run-up to the elections on 14 May. The leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) accuses the president of dividing society in the hope of being re-elected.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer

In the thirteen years that he has led the CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu has profoundly renewed the discourse of the party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, notably on the Kurdish question. This openness earned him the appreciation of voters of the pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, which is not putting forward a presidential candidate to facilitate his victory.

But this tacit support also earned him to be accused by Recep Tayyip Erdogan of making an alliance with "terrorists", since the Turkish president designates the HDP as the political showcase of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK.

The Kurds, numbering about 15 million in Turkey, are seen as the kingmakers of next month's elections, announced as the most dangerous for Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to power in 2003 as prime minister, AFP said.

« Millions of Kurds treated as terrorists »

The HDP represents around six million voters. In a short video on social networks, Kemal Kilicdaroglu denounces a discourse that stigmatizes the Kurds in order to seduce the most nationalist Turks. "In recent years, every time the Palace sees that it is going to lose the elections, a collective stigmatization of Kurds, assimilated to terrorists, begins. It's shameful, really shameful," he said. Millions of Kurds are being treated as terrorists right now. My dear friends, do not be fooled by their propaganda!

Kemal Kilicdaroglu had previously denounced the "discrimination" against the Kurdish language in Turkey, as well as the replacement in recent years in the Kurdish-majority south-east of dozens of HDP mayors by government-appointed administrators.

In case of victory, Kemal Kilicdaroglu promised to release Selahattin Demirtas, charismatic figure and former co-leader of the HDP, imprisoned since 2016 for "terrorist propaganda".

► READ ALSO: In Turkey, "fear, at some point, turns into strength"

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• Turkey
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan
• Kurds