Controversial remarks from a mayoral candidate and senior executive of Turkey’s main opposition party targeting a pro-Kurdish party have caused anger, disappointment and frustration not only among the country’s Kurds but also within her party.
Burcu Köksal, the CHP mayoral candidate for the western Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar, known as one of Turkey’s nationalist heartlands, and also the party’s deputy group chairperson, said during a rally in the province on Wednesday that if she is elected, the doors of the municipality will be open to all parties except the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
Turkey will hold local elections on March 31.
Less than a year ago, the pro-Kurdish party did not hesitate to support the presidential candidacy of then-CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who was defeated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he secured yet another term in a runoff election in May.
Back in 2019, the DEM Party’s predecessor, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), helped the CHP end the years-long Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule in İstanbul, Turkey’s economic powerhouse, by supporting CHP mayoral candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu.
The pro-Kurdish’s party’s support for the CHP in past elections without being included in an alliance of opposition parties because nationalist parties in that alliance would be irked by their presence has led to regret in the wake of Köksal’s remarks and similar statements from CHP politicians against the Kurds.
Kurdish journalist Nurcan Baysal and prominent Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist Eren Keskin described Köksal on social media as a “racist” due to her remarks targeting the DEM Party.
Kurdish politician Ferhat Encü, also a former HDP lawmaker, tweeted that there was no slip of the tongue in Köksal’s remarks as she later claimed, but rather the “reflection of a fascist and racist mentality” and “enmity towards Kurds …”
Encü said the Kurdish people don’t need any favors from Köksal and that they will give her the necessary answer at the ballot box.
When CHP leader Özgür Özel described Köksal’s remarks as “a minor slip of the tongue” later in the day in the wake of the outrage from the Kurds, Köksal refused to take a step back and said she stands behind her words and that it was not a “slip of the tongue.”
The CHP, however, issued a statement later on Thursday on X, denouncing Köksal’s remarks and saying that just as in the past, the doors of CHP-run municipalities will be open to everyone and that nobody will be denied public services or their rights due to their ethnic identity.
Speaking to journalist Barış Yarkadaş, Köksal said she would not allow any DEM Party officials to join the municipal council but that she would offer municipal services to all residents of the city without discrimination.
Unlike Özel, who failed to openly criticize Köksal, İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu gave a stronger response to the CHP mayoral candidate during an election rally in İstanbul on Thursday.
“I am a CHP member, but I serve all the people in this province no matter their political views. The person who says I won’t allow these or those people into the municipality when elected should either look for a new job or a new party for themselves,” İmamoğlu said.
Many have said İmamoğlu has shown who the party’s real leader is considering the weak reaction from Özel.
According to journalist Erk Acarer, Köksal aimed to win the support of the nationalist and conservative voters in Afyonkarahisar with her remarks targeting the DEM Party, but she seems unaware that her remarks have hurt millions of DEM Party voters and will have an effect on the result of the local elections.
The pro-Kurdish Green Left Party (YSP), another predecessor of the DEM Party, secured 8.8 percent of the vote in the 2023 parliamentary elections, while the HDP won 11.7 percent in 2018.
Acarer said why should nationalist voters support the CHP when they can vote for the AKP- Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) alliance, which pursues a more nationalistic discourse.
Pro-Kurdish parties are hated by Turkey’s nationalists, who accuse them of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
The HDP faces a closure case on terrorism charges that is still pending at the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, some lawyers called on the DEM Party to file a criminal complaint against Köksal, and political analysts said the CHP should withdraw Köksal’s candidacy to prevent a defeat in İstanbul and many other places due to the withdrawal of support from Kurdish voters.
This is not the first time that a CHP politician has targeted Kurds, leading them to question their support for the party.
Following the May 14 elections, the soft-spoken Kılıçdaroğlu adopted a harsher tone and began to send nationalistic messages in the wake of a defamation campaign by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government to associate him with PKK due to the HDP’s alleged support for the group.
A secret deal Kılıçdaroğlu made with the leader of the ultranationalist Victory Party (ZP) to get his party’s support for the runoff election, which became public knowledge in November, also disappointed Kurds because the deal included articles contrary to the interests of Kurds such as a continuation of the replacement of democratically elected mayors in pro-Kurdish cities with government-appointed trustees.
Kurds say they do not see sufficient assistance from the CHP for their demands regarding the expansion of their rights in return for their support for the party’s candidate in critical elections.
The DEM Party has fielded its own candidates in İstanbul, Ankara and other places where Kurds had supported CHP candidates in the previous election.
