HDP torn between violence and politics.

• Author: Coskun, Vahap
• Position: COMMENTARY - Peoples' Democratic Party

Turkey was ruled by coalition governments between 1991 and 2002. A major economic crisis and political turmoil in the late 1990s and early 2000s cost a king's ransom to political parties in the Parliament and voters discarded these parties soon after. In the general elections of 2002, only two parties managed to enter the Parliament, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Republican People's Party (CHP). The AK Party came to power alone and has won every single election in the last 13 years.

On the eve of the June 7, 2015 elections, the expectation was for an AK Party government. However, hopes failed with the announcement of the results. Although the AK Party won 40.87 percent of the votes, which is considered a success for parliamentary systems, it failed to reach a parliamentary majority to form a single-party government. On the morning of June 8, 2015, having had a long period of political stability, Turkey once again woke up to a government problem.

HDP's June 7 Victory

A crucial outcome of the June 7 elections was that the AK Party lost power. On the other hand, another noteworthy result of the polls was that the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) overcame the 10 percent national election threshold and made it in to the Parliament. Previously to bypass the threshold, predecessors of HDP had entered elections with independent candidates, winning 22 seats in 2007 and 36 seats in 2011.

In 2015, HDP decided to join the race as a party--not through independent candidates. Considering that its voting percentage remained in between 6 and 7 percent in the previous parliamentary elections, this seemed extremely risky. Yet, the June 7 elections resulted in a victory for HDP. The party received more than six million votes (13.12 percent) and gained 80 seats in the Parliament. It has become the third party, leaving the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) behind in terms of the total number of parliamentary representatives.

HDP doubled both the number of votes and of deputies, and the leading factors behind this election success were: (i) As HDP joined forces with the anti-AK Party bloc, some groups who were reluctant towards HDP in the past, this time provided support with their "strategic votes" in order to curb a single-party government by the AK Party. (ii) HDP ran an election campaign with the slogan, "We will not let you become a President", focusing on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (iii) HDP successfully worked on the promise that the Kurdish identity would be strongly represented in the Parliament if the party were to manage to enter the National Assembly, and if the awareness about Kurdish identity was raised. (iv) The mainstream media hitherto remaining aloof to HDP provided great support to the party for the June 7 election. (v) The motivation gained through the fact that HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas had received almost 10 percent of the votes (9.76 percent) in the presidential race of 2014. (vi) Demirtas's political performance was regarded to be superior to that of other opposition leaders, namely Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the CHP and Devlet Bahceli of the MHP in the run up to the election.

The big increase in the HDP votes was not just because of the well-directed efforts, choices and work of the party, but because of the mistakes made by the AK Party in the same period. The AK Party's mistakes played a critical role in HDP's vote gain, such as: (i) Kurds in general were disturbed by some unfortunate statements made by the AK Party during its rivalry with HDP. For instance, the allegations against the HDP and PKK about promoting Zoroastrian belief did not only disturb the HDP's social base, but also the broader Kurdish public. (ii) The AK Party turned its back on the reconciliation process, of which the party had argued that it was the architect. Especially...