The HDP Challenging The Election Threshold Is Risky And Pointless

With Selahattin Demirtaş at its helm, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has begun its campaigning for the country's upcoming elections. The party is offering policy proposals on how to fix both new and old problems in Turkey, in addition to working hard to expose the damage done by the country's ruling party. By doing so, it expands its aims higher than just peace with the Kurds, displays a stance that embraces all of Turkey and shows a remarkable sense of responsibility in all of its dealings.
Still, no one would dare to press Kurdish politicians to “save” Turkish democracy before dealing with the Kurds' own problems. The HDP, as the representative of those who have suffered and continue to suffer, cannot avoid developing a “Kurdish national agenda,” especially when international and regional conditions are as conducive as they appear to be right now for the Kurds in the wider region around Turkey. At the same time, though, since last August's presidential election, the HDP was telling Turkey that its horizons are not restricted to Kurdistan and that its political aspirations include not only the whole of Turkey, but also wider areas in the region.

From this standpoint, then, it becomes difficult to understand the HDP's decision to enter the upcoming election race as a party (as opposed to individual independent deputy candidates), as well as the adamant arguments backing the decision we hear from party officials. Countless observers and researchers who are far from being anti-Kurdish have made it clear that the 10 percent national election threshold that a party needs in order to enter Parliament looks impossible to achieve.

Thus, if the HDP does go ahead and enters the race as a unified party, would it not be a crushing rout for its “Turkishness” vision? And as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's single desire is to establish sufficient support in the future Parliament to set up a Putin-like presidential system, what's the point of offering this up to him on a golden plate by effectively taking the party out of Parliament?

Let's take a look at the arguments proffered by Demirtaş to allay fears and suspicions that now surround his party's gamble to compete as a party. Speaking recently, he said: “We do not see elections as a life or death affair. If we do not pass the threshold, we'll work for four years from outside Parliament.” Is this approach not a polite way of saying, “We tried to work together with them but are now giving up”? As an HDP voter, I would actually like to see it enter Parliament!

Here's another quote from Demirtaş, “If we do not pass the threshold, Parliament will not represent the will of around 18 percent of the people.” Some have observed that looking at it from the angle of representation, a parliament without the HDP would be illegitimate and the system would not work, and that could be risky when it comes to Kurdish peace. I can agree with this argument if only we did not have the specter of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in front of us, whose source of legitimacy would be the majority that the HDP would offer it by not being present in Parliament. What's more, how can one even talk about legitimacy in representation when we are dealing with a ruling party which has, for a long time now, lost its own moral legitimacy? Finally, what sort of long-term benefit would such an AKP generate for the country or for the Kurds?

As Demirtaş sees it, if the Kurdish deputies participate in the upcoming elections individually instead of participating under the aegis of the HDP, they will involuntarily help to continue the current system, without having had a chance to change it. But why would this be a risk? How can one downplay, for example, the role played by HDP deputies in the defunct parliamentary drafting commission for the new Constitution? And if one really sees risks there, they are certainly minimal compared to the risk of being left outside Parliament.

It is also impossible to understand Demirtaş' worry that entering the election race with independent deputies would somehow destroy the party dynamic when it comes to individual voters. Perhaps he thinks that somehow voters will shy away and say, “If that's how it is, I'm not going to cast my ballot for an independent HDP candidate!” Aren't the most democratic elections those in which voters get to vote for individual candidates as opposed to party-nominated apparatchiks?

The reasons provided by the HDP are far from assuaging the doubts and suspicions of in particular the sworn Kurdish enemies. And this is probably the greatest risk for the country as a whole. Gambling with the threshold could be fatal for all when the country is engulfed it its worst era ever, when we seem to be swaying between Salafism and fascism, and when our region is in such turmoil. Turkey's genuine opposition party, the HDP, cannot dare to take on such a responsibility.

CENGİZ AKTAR (Cihan/Today's Zaman)