WEEKLY ROUNDUP #9
HDP wants solution to Kurdish question for supporting opposition against Erdoğan
HDP co-leaders Sancar and Buldan announced the party's declaration for the next elections (Photo: HDP)
bianet's weekly summary of important events in Turkey:
The Kurdish question and the next elections
• The main opposition leader's remarks triggered a new "Kurdish question" debate
• The opposition bloc needs the HDP's support to defeat Erdoğan in the next election
• The HDP released a declaration concerning the elections, laying down 11 principles for a "democracy alliance"
Becoming a key party for the next election, the HDP wants the opposition to adopt a "pro-solution" approach to the Kurdish question for supporting them against Erdoğan.
With his recent remarks on the Kurdish question, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu triggered a new debate about the issue.
Earlier in the month, Kılıçdaroğlu told a documentary that they will resolve the Kurdish question when they come to power.
The state should address a legitimate body like the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) rather than the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, he argued.
"[President] Erdoğan did this. The state was limited to addressing [Öcalan] ... [Öcalan] is not a legitimate body," he said, referring to the previous "resolution process" that was terminated by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in mid-2015.
The HDP has welcomed Kılıçdaroğlu's statement, while noting that Öcalan should also be considered as an "interlocutor" in resolving the Kurdish question.
İYİ (Good) Party agrees with its ally CHP on the issue, its leader Meral Akşener said during a live TV interview on September 24.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been allied with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) over the past few years, denies the existence of a Kurdish question as "we have already solved it."
Read more:
Kurdish question debate: HDP rebukes Erdoğan, praises opposition leader
Kurdish question for Erdoğan: A changing discourse over the years
Demirtaş: Parliament is where the Kurdish question is to be resolved
'No actor can be ignored' in resolving the Kurdish question, says HDP's Sancar
The HDP today (September 27) released a 11-article declaration concerning the next elections, which are scheduled for June 2023.
In the declaration, the HDP calls the opposition to form a "democratic alliance" based on the 11 principles, which include a stronger democracy, judicial independence, a peaceful foreign policy, women's equality, economic justice and a democratic solution for the Kurdish question.
According to opinion polls, neither the ruling People's Alliance nor the opposition Nation's Alliance can get more than 50 percent of the votes, which means the opposition needs the HDP's support to defeat Erdoğan and the AKP.
Senior HDP figures have often stressed this, saying that Kurdish voters' choice will be key in determining the election results.
Read more:
Kurdish voters' choice will determine the outcome of next election, says Demirtaş
HDP will be a key player 'even if it is closed'
Why has the AKP-MHP bloc decided to lower the election threshold?
Student housing protests
On September 19, a group of university students who call themselves the "Movement of the Unsheltered" spent the night at a park in İstanbul's Kadıköy district, protesting the high housing prices.
Within a week, the protests spread to over 10 provinces. Police detained nine people during the protest in the capital city of Ankara.
As universities' return to in-person classes after one and a half years of distance learning coincided with an excessive increase in rent prices across the country, especially in greater cities, students have faced a housing crisis when they returned to their schools.
President Erdoğan on Sunday dismissed the protesters as "liars," saying that ""We are a government that has increased the dormitory capacities more than ever."
Read more:
Students face 'housing crisis' as universities about to open
'Every student face this issue every year'
'Hundreds of thousands of students will be deprived of education'
Police prevent students protesting high housing prices
Only two percent of rental flats in İstanbul 'affordable and livable'
Erdoğan not happy with Biden
Erdoğan and Biden met at the NATO summit in June. (Photo: AA/File)
President Erdoğan has been recently vocal about his discontent with the Biden administration in the US.
On September 23, he told reporters in New York, where he visited to attend the UN General Assembly meeting, that "I worked well with President Bush Jr., I worked well with Mr. Obama, I worked well with Mr. Trump. But I cannot say that we had a good start with Mr. Biden."
One day later, after returning to Turkey, Erdoğan said Turkey and the US should be in a very different position as two Nato members.
"I have never been in such a position with a US leader before, but this is unfortunately our situation now," he told reporters.
The president also complained about the US support to "terrorist groups," apparently referring to the Kurdish groups in Syria.
He also noted that Biden turned down a request for a meeting on the sidelines of the UN summit.
Erdoğan also criticized the Biden administration in a TV interview aired yesterday (September 26) on CBS. The US should question its 20-year presence in Afghanistan, which "did not bring safety," he remarked.
The president also responded to Biden calling him an "autocrat," noting that he won all elections he competed in.
Erdoğan's remarks against Biden came ahead of his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin on September 29.
Read more:
Biden, Erdoğan have first phone call three months after inauguration
Biden-Erdoğan: Delay, question marks, statements
US sanctions Turkey's arms purchasing agency over S-400s
| MIGRATION |
Refugees pushed into river, went missing
Turkey's security forces allegedly pushed dozens of refugees into the Evros river, which makes up the border between Turkey and Greece, and two of them are still missing, according to the Human Rights Association
500,000 Syrian refugee children are outside the education system
The head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, praised Turkey on September 21 for having integrated 700,000 children to the education system. According to the government, there are about 1.2 millison school-age Syrians n Turkey
| FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION |
Freedom House report: Turkey is not free on the net
Turkey is the country with the fastest decline in internet freedom, according to Gürkan Özturan, the rapporteur for Turkey.
| WOMEN&LGBTI+ |
Top court says trans people can change name without gender reassignment surgery
The Constitutional Court ruled in right to privacy of a trans woman was violated because she wasn't allowed to change her name on the grounds that she hadn't undergone a gender reassignment surgery
| ENVIRONMENT |
Air pollution in İstanbul, Ankara well above updated WHO limit values
The WHO has lowered the limit values from PM10 and PM2.5. Turkey does not sufficiently measure air quality and has no national limit value for PM2.5, says Greenpeace Mediterranean
Erdoğan promises to ratify Paris Agreement
The agreement will be discussed in the parliament shortly after the start of the legislative session, the president said on September 21. Turkey is the only OECD country that hasn't ratified the climate agreement
| ANIMALS |
More companies in Turkey to switch to cage-free eggs
Six companies in the sectors of accommodation, food and retail have completely switched to cage-free eggs while dozens of others have promised do it by 2025, says Cage Free Turkey (VK)