Pro-Kurdish HDP to reconsider nominating a presidential candidate

Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party will review its decision to nominate a presidential candidate after severe earthquakes struck Turkey on Feb. 6, killing nearly 45,000 people.

The HDP had previously announced that it would run its own candidate in the elections.

HDP Deputy Co-Chair Tayip Temel said the party would raise the issue at its administrative meeting on Monday.

"Given the heavy atmosphere caused by the earthquake and the government's opportunistic stance, we need to reevaluate the candidacy debates as a whole," Temel said in an interview with Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet.

On Tuesday, HDP’s former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas called on opposition to “walk side by side, unite and rebuild this destroyed country together.”

"There should be cooperation between the alliances to help people and show solidarity, and the alliances should now have the courage to intervene in the political process by conducting open and transparent negotiations," he said.

The Nation Alliance, which is composed of six opposition parties, including the CHP (Republican People's Party) and the Good Party, would like to see the HDP reverse its decision to participate in the elections with its own candidate and support the Nation Alliance instead, but its leaders have failed to openly address the HDP for fear of losing nationalist votes.

"Either we will declare our own candidate quickly, or we will say 're-evaluation is needed because we are faced with the new situation,” Temel said.