Demirtas calls on opposition bloc to be "bolder"

Pro-Kurdish HDP’s imprisoned former co-chair Selahattin Demirtas called on Turkey’s six-party opposition bloc to be bolder.

“Table of Six is an important and valuable experience for dialogue, but it is not enough. We need to be more courageous for a democratic Republic where no one will be left out,” Demirtas said.

The opposition bloc should focus on winning not only the election, but also a great democratic future, he said, adding that in order to achieve this goal, they should create a basis for cooperation, dialogue and reconciliation with much wider political and social segments.

“Fearing that the ruling AKP-MHP alliance’s trolls will attack and cost them votes, will lead to a big loss. On the contrary, it is the expansion that will both win votes and bright futures,” he told IzGazete in an interview on Friday.

Turkey is facing presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June at the latest, where Turkish President Erdogan earlier this week signalled May 14 as the election date.

Six opposition parties, including the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) are working to put forward a joint candidate to run against Erdogan in the presidential race.

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who earlier said it is open to negotiations with the six other opposition parties over the idea of supporting a joint candidate, at the beginning of this month announced that it will nominate its own candidate in the first round of upcoming elections should the six-party bloc fails a dialogue with the HDP on certain principles.

In response to a question on how he sees Turkey’s opposition parties’ attitude towards the Kurdish issue and the HDP, Demirtas said it is an inadequate political attitude, lacking courage and an understanding of building a future together.

“When it comes to the Kurdish issue and the HDP, everyone in Tukey positions themselves as a special forces operator. The official ideology of the state and its century-old erroneous policies have so poisoned and taken over the minds that the opposition that can think civilly and approach the issues with its own mind, not with the mind of the state, is unfortunately very limited,” he said.

“We [HDP] are not counter-terrorism personnel, we are politicians seeking a political solution to the issue. If you also act like politicians instead of acting like counter-terrorism personnel, we will be able to sit, talk and solve our problems before anyone is being killed or the country is being divided”, Demirtas said.