ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) announced late on Sunday that seven Kurdish parties have now agreed to run candidates under the HDP list in the upcoming provincial elections.

“Seven Kurdish parties made an agreement to attend the election under HDP,” read a statement from the HDP posted on Facebook, adding an official declaration of the alliance will be made on Monday morning.

The original post was later deleted for unknown reasons. A screenshot of the post in its original Kurmanji dialect is posted here. 

Turkey will hold provincial elections on March 31 in around 80 provinces.

The HDP hopes “this historic move will be permanent and be a basis for national unity.”

The new alliance includes the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the Communist Party of Kurdistan (KKP), the Freedom Movement (Hereketa Azadi), the Revolutionary Eastern Culture Associations (DDKD), the Human and Freedom Party, the Kurdish Democratic Platform (PDK), and the Kurdistan Democratic Party – Turkey (PDK-T).

There has so far been no official statement on the alliance issued by any of these seven parties.

Indicating just how controversial the agreement may prove to be, a member of the Freedom Azadi has resigned.

Sidki Zilan, a senior official of the movement, announced his resignation on Saturday.

Zilan resigned because the soul of the HDP’s alliance is “incompatible” with his own “attitude towards political ethics,” he said. 

He claimed that “90 percent of HDP voters are Kurds but not even half of its leadership is made up of Kurds.”

Kurdish parties held similar meetings in the run up to the June 2018 parliamentary and presidential elections, but were unable to reach an agreement.

HDP emerged as the biggest of the pro-Kurdish parties in the Turkish parliament with 11.7 percent of the vote. Its presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas – currently detained while facing terrorism charges – secured 8.4 percent of the vote. 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party came out on top.