Kurdish parties lend conditional support to CHP’s vote proposals

Turkey’s two pro-Kurdish parties says they will support the main opposition party’s candidate in the second round of the presidential elections if this nominee is someone who can provide assurances on democracy, freedom and the Kurdish question Two pro-Kurdish parties have indicated that they would consider supporting the presidential candidate of the main opposition party in the second round of polls if this nominee is someone who can provide assurances on democracy, freedom and the Kurdish question.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), continued his consultations with political parties yesterday over finding a joint opposition presidential candidate for the August election, meeting the co-chairpersons of the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP), Sebahat Tuncel and Ertuğrul Kürkçü, and the co-leader of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Selahattin Demirtaş. These two parties, which are mainly focused on the Kurdish issue, will play a key role in the election, commanding a vote capacity of around seven percent.

According to information gathered by daily Hürriyet, the representatives from the HDP and the BDP signaled that they would consider lending support to the CHP’s candidate in the second leg of elections if the nominee was someone known for their positive approached on democracy, freedoms and the Kurdish issue. The representatives reportedly underlined that the policies currently pursued by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on these issues were not in line with their criteria.

However, they also urged Kılıçdaroğlu that the CHP should exert efforts to break possible anti-Kurdish grassroots prejudice...