Turkey's main opposition rejects top court’s decision to block funding for the HDP

Five days after Turkey’s top court decided to block pro-Kurdish HDP’s (Peoples’ Democratic Party) bank accounts ahead of a critical presidential elections, main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu reacted against the decision and said the practice was undemocratic.

The decision by the Constitutional Court froze about $29 million of government aid for HDP less than six months before elections as it continues hearing a case seeking the HDP'S closure over alleged militant ties.

“If we believe in democracy, we should believe in freedom of thought. The closure of political parties is a tradition of military regimes. Political parties are no longer closed in democracies. We do not accept any undemocratic practices such as closing the parties or blocking government aid, we do not find it right," he said.

Kilicdaroglu’s CHP (Republican People’s Party) is one of the six opposition parties that formed an alliance to nominate a joint candidate against President Tayyip Erdogan but until now failed to start a dialogue with the HDP to act together in the elections.

As several of the calls by the HDP administration for negotiations with the opposition alliance, a.k.a “Table of Six” remain unanswered, the HDP on Saturday announced that it decided to run its own candidate and it will soon declare who the candidate will be.

Pro-government media interpreted Kilicdaroglu’s move as “sweet talk” to seduce the party into supporting their candidate.