Three issues stood out last week on Türkiye’s electoral agenda: The PKK terrorist organization’s statement on the elections; new negotiations within the electoral alliances and Erdoğan’s economic measures towards the elections.
PKK calls to overthrow Erdoğan
The PKK, responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people with terrorist acts in Türkiye since the early 1980s, has announced its decision on the May 14 elections.
In her statement to the press, one of the organization’s executives Bese Hozat announced the decision of inaction until the elections, taken in order to overthrow the government.
Hozat also commented on the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) decision not to present a presidential candidate in the elections (As for the party, there is an ongoing lawsuit for the closure because of the HDP on the grounds of its links to the PKK). Hozat said the following:
“We find the HDP’s stance of supporting the Nation Alliance valuable, important and meaningful. It will directly affect the outcome of the elections. We support this stance… Our struggle has pushed this fascist government into process of collapse. If this struggle is continued and strengthened during the electoral process, this fascist power will be overthrown on May 14th…We re-evaluated our ceasefire decision… We have decided to extend it to after elections because this vote is a historic one. We will revise the decision after the elections.”
Another executive of the organization Remzi Kartal also spoke about the elections:
“This process is the process of the collapse of fascism. It is the democratization, the opening of the gates of İmralı (UWI’s note: the prison where the PKK leader is imprisoned). Abdullah Öcalan’s thoughts reaching the society of Türkiye in an open and clear way is very important.”
Remzi Kartal also revealed their goals:
“In order to advance negotiations and dialogue, Öcalan must be accepted as a direct interlocutor. Otherwise, we will not take part in any attempt.”
Zübeyir Aydar, one of the PKK’s executives in Europe, said the following in an interview a while ago:
“If the existing regime remains in power, Türkiye will descend into chaos and become more of a dictatorship. Türkiye will become another Syria. To avert this outcome, there needs to be a change in government. The responsibility to effect that change lies on the opposition bloc of six parties, not on the HDP. Everyone needs to act cautiously.
Cracks in the Nation Alliance
The May 14 elections are mostly centered on the ruling the People’s Alliance and the oppositional Nation Alliance.
But the alliances are not without changes and internal disagreements.
The first surprise was the announcement of the New Welfare Party’s support for the People’s Alliance.
Fatih Erbakan, the leader of the New Welfare Party, told reporters, after the meeting with President Erdoğan:
“For now, we will go to polls in all constituencies with our own logo and emblem. It does not seem likely that we will have any deputy from AK Party lists. We took a national and decisive step in order not to surrender our country and people to six-party chaos. Therefore, we rejected joining the People’s Alliance.”
“We did not have a request for participation in government or a ministry or a vice presidency. We have a roadmap of being in the Parliament strongly with our parliamentary group and deputies to follow the implementation of actions we have agreed with.”
Muharrem İnce, the chairperson of the Homeland Party and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Republican People’s Party leader and presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance met last week.
Muharrem İnce has been drawing the ire of many opponents of Erdoğan who have been accusing him of “dividing the opposition bloc and vote”. After the meeting, Kılıçdaroğlu acknowledged that he sought to convince Muharrem İnce to withdraw candidacy.
But did İnce did not accept. Addressing “esteemed friends who are angry with me for running for president” İnce revealed his reasons for candidacy:
“There is no such alliance in the true sense. An alliance that could barely name its presidential candidate after 13 meetings cannot run a country… Voters don’t want confusion; they want clarity. Our party is found reasonable for not opposing everything and calling it as is, loved for supporting current foreign policies, war on terror groups like the PKK, the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), and appreciating efforts to advance the defense industry.”
Another important development was the resignation of Yavuz Aliağaroğlu, one of the prominent executives of the Good Party, opposing Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy.
Erdoğan’s economic measures ahead of the elections
While Türkiye is heading towards elections, President Erdoğan has been making a series of moves for the elections.
The first one was the increase in monthly minimum pension payment from TL 5,500 to TL 7,500. Besides, an arrangement that eliminates the age requirement and provides early retirement to millions of citizens -a topic has been discussed for a long time in Türkiye- was introduced by President Erdoğan.
The second move was reducing the prices of electricity and gas. Erdoğan announced that electricity prices would be lowered by 15% and gas prices for industrial users by 20% in April.
Thirdly, Erdoğan pledged that the minimum wage would we increased in July. In January this year the minimum wage was increased by 55%.
Erdoğan also said that construction of new houses has also started in the earthquake zone.
A striking news story was the footage of Erdoğan handing cash money to children.
Erdoğan responded to an adult citizen reaching for the money in his hand by saying, “Stop. This is a shameful”. This footage became trending topic on social media. Many people criticized Erdoğan for handing out money.