Socialist party leader sees opportunity to become "a real political actor"

Socialist party leader sees opportunity to become "a real political actor"
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TIP officials have declared unconditional support for Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance.

The chair of the Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP) said before a party meeting in the earthquake hit province of Hatay that socialists may be at a turning point of historical importance for the first time in decades.

Erkan Bas said:

"As we are approaching a historically important election, socialists in Turkey, for the first time in a long time, may have begun to be looked upon as a real political actor."

TIP, a part of the six-party Labor and Freedom Alliance alongside pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Labor Party (EMEP), Pro-Labor Movement Party (EHP), Social Freedom Party (TOP) and Federation of Socialist Assemblies, announced at the end of the meeting that they have decided to compete in the parliamentary elections not under the title of any other party but their own.

The party officials also said that the central committee has been authorized to negotiate with other parties of the bloc in favor of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opposition leader and presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance.

TIP's decision to provide unconditional support for Kilicdaroglu came days after HDP officials and HDP's incarcerated former leader Selahattin Demirtas made it clear that they may support Kilicdaroglu, but that a meeting with him to discuss basic issues and reaching a consensus on such issues would make the support all the more willing.

TIP is currently represented in the Turkish Grand National Assembly by four deputies, Erkan Bas, journalist Ahmet Sik and actor Baris Atay, who were elected as HDP candidates, and lawyer Seda Kadigil, who wes elected as CHP candidate.