ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) visited the leaders of Turkish opposition parties on Tuesday, calling for a joint effort in the parliament to bring snap elections to the country’s agenda. The co-chairs, Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, paid rare visits to Ahmet Davutoglu, leader of Future Party on Monday, and to Ali Babacan, head of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Tuesday. Pervin and Sancar proposed to Davutoglu, Babacan, and Kilicdaroglu to join them in the Turkish parliament to push for early elections. The opposition parties have been calling for snap elections since last year but these calls increased recently after the country’s economy suffered a lot, especially after the country’s currency dramatically lost value against the dollar. “Turkey needs a new understanding and governance. This will definitely happen in Turkey when there is an early election decision” Buldan said during a joint presser with Sancar and Kilicdaroglu, adding that with an early vote “Turkey will definitely see a new administration and a new understanding.” “We shared our position on this to the [CHP] leader. We had done the same during our meetings with other parties. We have requested from the [CHP] leader [to join the HDP] to submit a joint proposal to the parliament to hold an early election,” Buldan continued. “Turkey needs unity,” Kilicdaroglu said,” adding that “We have suffered a lot from fighting. We have to prioritise peace not fighting.” He also said that all issues in Turkey can be resolved through dialogue. Davutoglu told the HDP leaders that they not only support early elections but “urgent elections” as well, especially at a time of severe economic crisis. Neither of the Turkish parties promised to join the HDP in such a move in the legislature but Buldan said they will receive answers from them soon. Turkey’s latest general elections were held on June 24, 2018. The People’s Alliance - mainly consisting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won most of the seats. The next elections are due no later than June 2023. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party have said that the elections will be held on time. “They [the opposition] still call for early polls. There will be no early polls. They will be held in June 2023. Going to polls every 15 or 20 months is only seen in primitive tribes. We are running this country as a modern entity,” Erdogan said in November.
