Interview
Huda Par leader Zekeriya Yapicioglu speaking to Rudaw on March 30, 2024. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The leader of the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party (Huda Par) on Saturday said he thinks his party will draw support from voters who are unhappy with both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), whose sister party he blamed for the collapse of peace talks a decade ago.
Turkey will hold provincial elections on Sunday. In Kurdish areas in the southeast it is shaping up to be a tight race between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP and the DEM Party.
“We can take votes away from both parties,” Huda Par leader Zekeriya Yapicioglu told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman.
“The election results on April 1 will show that… Those who previously voted for DEM Party and HDP [Peoples’ Democratic Party], or those who had voted for AKP and other parties, will make their dissatisfaction clear and vote for Huda Par,” he added.
Yapicioglu claimed that there has been a campaign to discredit Huda Par for years. The party faces opposition on every side. Ultranationalists criticize it because it is a Kurdish party, Kemalists because it is an Islamist party, while DEM Party considers itself the only representative of Kurds, according to the Huda Par leader.
Yapicioglu blamed HDP for a collapse in peace talks to end decades of bloody conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The peace process started in 2013 under then-prime minister Erdogan and was mediated by the pro-Kurdish HDP, but collapsed in 2015, followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s Kurdish areas.
“If the peace process of 12 to 13 years ago was not ruined by Qandil [PKK’s mountainous stronghold], the PKK, and the leftists at HDP, I believe other steps would have been taken which would have improved the situation of our people when it comes to the Kurdish issue,” said the Huda Par leader.
“We believe the Kurdish issue in Turkey needs to be resolved, otherwise Turkey cannot progress,” he added.
Since July 2015, nearly 7,000 people have been killed in clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK in Turkey and across the border in the Kurdistan Region, according to data from the International Crisis Group.
Yapicioglu accused the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) of attempting to “Turkify” Kurds and denying their existence and said this is why his party supported Erdogan and AKP during the May 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.
“Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been killed due to the ideology of CHP, because it is a racist nationalist ideology. So in order to prevent that ideology from winning the elections, we decided to support the AKP,” he said.
There is a long history of animosity and conflict over Kurdish issues and rights in Turkey. The state has at times gone as far as denying the very existence of Kurds.
Erdogan has been accused of using Kurds for political gain during elections. When his AKP came to power three decades ago, Kurds were provided limited cultural rights. The party has also appointed Kurdish ministers to its cabinets. The incumbent finance and foreign ministers are among them.
But after AKP fared poorly in the last municipal elections, it stripped dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors of their offices because of alleged links with the Kurdish rebels and replaced them with state-linked administrators.
Turkey will hold provincial elections on Sunday. In Kurdish areas in the southeast it is shaping up to be a tight race between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP and the DEM Party.
“We can take votes away from both parties,” Huda Par leader Zekeriya Yapicioglu told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman.
“The election results on April 1 will show that… Those who previously voted for DEM Party and HDP [Peoples’ Democratic Party], or those who had voted for AKP and other parties, will make their dissatisfaction clear and vote for Huda Par,” he added.
Yapicioglu claimed that there has been a campaign to discredit Huda Par for years. The party faces opposition on every side. Ultranationalists criticize it because it is a Kurdish party, Kemalists because it is an Islamist party, while DEM Party considers itself the only representative of Kurds, according to the Huda Par leader.
Yapicioglu blamed HDP for a collapse in peace talks to end decades of bloody conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The peace process started in 2013 under then-prime minister Erdogan and was mediated by the pro-Kurdish HDP, but collapsed in 2015, followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s Kurdish areas.
“If the peace process of 12 to 13 years ago was not ruined by Qandil [PKK’s mountainous stronghold], the PKK, and the leftists at HDP, I believe other steps would have been taken which would have improved the situation of our people when it comes to the Kurdish issue,” said the Huda Par leader.
“We believe the Kurdish issue in Turkey needs to be resolved, otherwise Turkey cannot progress,” he added.
Since July 2015, nearly 7,000 people have been killed in clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK in Turkey and across the border in the Kurdistan Region, according to data from the International Crisis Group.
Yapicioglu accused the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) of attempting to “Turkify” Kurds and denying their existence and said this is why his party supported Erdogan and AKP during the May 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.
“Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been killed due to the ideology of CHP, because it is a racist nationalist ideology. So in order to prevent that ideology from winning the elections, we decided to support the AKP,” he said.
There is a long history of animosity and conflict over Kurdish issues and rights in Turkey. The state has at times gone as far as denying the very existence of Kurds.
Erdogan has been accused of using Kurds for political gain during elections. When his AKP came to power three decades ago, Kurds were provided limited cultural rights. The party has also appointed Kurdish ministers to its cabinets. The incumbent finance and foreign ministers are among them.
But after AKP fared poorly in the last municipal elections, it stripped dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors of their offices because of alleged links with the Kurdish rebels and replaced them with state-linked administrators.
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