Victory of HDP! (Is It) The Last Gasp Of A Period
7th June elections make a clean break in Turkey by ending the nonstop power alone of AKP (Justice and Development Party). The star of this new page certainly is HDP (People’s Democratic Party). On the other hand, it is obscure how politics of diplomacy will deal with the bottleneck of the new arithmetic.
Without disregarding the possibility of repetition of the election, it can be said that Turkey take turn to the period of coalitions in the circumstance of economic deterioration which manifest itself step by step. We will see the process by experiencing. Both the victory of HDP and the declination of AKP dictatorship will contribute to class movement and the combative youth. Of course, no process continues single-sided. Organized struggle, the concrete campaigns of the socialist left and the performance of HDP in parliament will be determinant for the future of class struggle and left.
Some evaluations as to 7th June Elections:
HDP
– HDP which becomes successful about attracting the tactic ballots for passing the election threshold, ballot of leftists- socialists and ballots of conservative Kurds who previously votes for AKP score a victory. Thus, the aim of being a party of Turkey becomes a concrete reality.
– From now on the attitude of HDP will be quite challenging. Kurdish movement will sail close to the wind as a party of Turkey which passed the election threshold. For instance, any kind of close contact with AKP would destroy this positive environment, and the guerrilla activities and the prominence of the primary position of Abdullah Öcalan would affect the process of becoming Turkish* directly. All these are the new equilibrium for Kurdish movement.
– HDP utilizes the populist discourse in the election campaign. In some public meetings, on the one hand, there were Turkish flags and the posters of Mustafa Kemal; on the other hand, against the attack of AKP, they used religious discourse as well. While leftist and socialist take places in the list of HDP, the candidates like Dengir Mir Mehmed Fırat and Celal Doğan who are worn bourgeoisie names came foremost. The identities like Woman, Kurd, Circassian, Armenian, Alevi, turban, tribe ex. become the key points of HDP one more time. Although, from place to place there were emphases on workers- laborers, mostly addressed to liberals. As a conclusion, the expectations about HDP shouldn’t be great and the mechanism of support-critic must be handled in a right way by put pressure on HDP from left.
AKP
-By losing more than 9% ballots, AKP lost the power alone. 3% of its ballot canalized to MHP (Nationalist Movement Party), 3, 5-4% to HDP, 2% to CHP (Republican People’s Party). From CHP 2,5-3% of ballots canalized to HDP.
-Although AKP was overthrown because of the 9% decrease in ballots; it won the elections by landslide with %40.7 of the ballots. The following strategy of RTE (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) will be built on a striking return, in case of an early election after an unsuccessful coalition. The conjuncture is already following an economic deterioration. RTE’s last–ditch will be watching the opportunities arising from this rapid economic deterioration.
–It is clear that the provocative attacks of AKP and especially RTE, towards HDP, backfired. After all, AKP sank into oblivion in Kurdish provinces. They fell down above %20. In Diyarbakır, AKP had only one deputy. Also Hüda Par, which is a pro-Hezbollah party, disappointed in Kurdish provinces by not having any deputy.
–While some parts of the ballots that AKP lost, shifted to MHP by the nationalist people who feel uncomfortable about the rise of HDP; others shifted to CHP because of the economic deterioration. If AKP will not be able to manage this period successfully and RTE will obstinate; the cracks in the party will raise and the possibility of the weakening of AKP will be increase.
CHP
–It is observed that there is a small decrease, just below 1%, in the votes of CHP. And this makes the future of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu disputable, who fell short of the mark. On the other hand, we can guess that Kılıçdaroğlu, who made an early election, who drove forward the prominent figures of Gezi Park protests, who made a relatively effective election program mostly according to economic requests; will be supported by the effective mechanisms in the party when either planned or semivoluntary ballots canalized to HDP are regarded. But there might be again an internal feud in CHP. The fact that AKP has a lost, and the following coalition bargaining, will simplify Kılıçdaroğlu’s work in this period.
SOCIALIST LEFT
-Socialist left mostly supported HDP in this election. Some of them are already within HDP. But there is a basic problem here. The leftist components of HDP cannot remain their independent existences and becoming an attachment to the Kurdish political movement. For example, Figen Yüksekdağ who is from ESP (Socialist Party of Opressed) (which means she should have a Marxist-Leninist claim in background), and who is brought to co-chairmanship in party; fell behind Selahattin Demirtaş in leftist discourse. The speech of Yüksekdağ after the speech of Demirtaş in the election victory; had no revolutionary content, it was consisted of social democrat or liberal discourses. There will be more socialist deputies in HDP in this period, but as a matter of fact, there is no reason for us to expect a much different stance from the past.
-There is not a well-coordinated stance among the socialist groups who are supporting HDP from outside. BHH (United June Movement) which had a chance to make a difference in this matter; had missed a lot of opportunities because of its inconsistent and indecisive attitude in this period. The outcomes are seen better today. They could have come out of the election stronger if they would make an ally with HDP, with stipulating the condition of remaining their independence. That was the thing that must be done, in a place where the leftist-socialist masses already supporting HDP.
-The mission of socialist left in this period, is organizing united and effective campaigns with tangible goals. With or without AKP; the exploitation system is still ruling with its all irregularities. It is not possible for socialist struggle to move forward, without rising from class and youth movement. Apart from that, the policies of revolutionists about HDP which gained an important victory in the election; must be away from sectarian and opportunist attitude. Revolutionists must support HDP when it opposes the bourgeoisie, and they mustn’t abstain from criticizing it ruthlessly in an opposed situation.
*The unity of every people in the borders of Turkey under the identity of the “citizen of Turkey”, without regarding any national identities such as Turkish, Kurdish, Circassian, Armenian, Alevi etc.
