{"id":37119,"date":"2019-03-24T12:26:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T12:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37119"},"modified":"2019-03-24T12:26:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T12:26:18","slug":"kurds-to-rally-in-turkey-ahead-of-key-local-elections-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37119","title":{"rendered":"Kurds to rally in Turkey ahead of key local elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nISTANBUL: Thousands of supporters of a pro-Kurdish party gathered Sunday in Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and to attend a campaign rally for local elections that will test the Turkish president\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n

\nThe Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party, or HDP, held the event amid the municipal office races that have become polarizing and a government crackdown on its members for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants.<\/p>\n

\nParty lawmakers, including former chairman Selahattin Demirtas, and mayors have been jailed. Supporters at Sunday\u2019s rally waved HDP flags and chanted slogans for Demirtas and the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, or PKK.<\/p>\n

\nSecurity at Sunday\u2019s event was heavy and police controlled the rally entrance, but the atmosphere was celebratory.<\/p>\n

\nThe Newroz fire, which symbolizes purification and the arrival of spring, was burning in Istanbul, following days of celebrations in southeastern Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nThe party has fielded candidates for the March 31 votes in Turkey\u2019s predominantly Kurdish southeast but is sitting out critical races in Turkey\u2019s major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara.<\/p>\n

\nThe strategy is intended to deliver HDP votes to Turkey\u2019s main secular opposition Republican People\u2019s Party so it can challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s ruling party.<\/p>\n

\nMillions of ethnic Kurds will vote in the elections. Erdogan, who is also campaigning for Kurdish votes, plans to hold a massive election rally near HDP\u2019s on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\nIn the southeast, the party aims to win back control of municipalities that were seized by the government during a state of emergency declared after the 2016 failed coup. Government-appointed trustees replaced elected officials in nearly a hundred municipalities.<\/p>\n

\nIn October, Erdogan threatened not to accept such an outcome.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf people involved with terror are chosen in the ballot boxes in these elections, we\u2019ll immediately do what\u2019s necessary and continue on our path by appointing trustees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nThe government accuses HDP politicians of links to PKK, and Erdogan regularly brands them terrorists and traitors. The HDP does not deny such links but says it only advocates for Kurdish rights and democracy through legal, political means.<\/p>\n

\nThe PKK, considered a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, has waged an insurgency since 1984 and the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.<\/p>\n

\nA fragile cease-fire held for more than two years as the Turkish government, HDP politicians and the PKK\u2019s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, negotiated a peace process.<\/p>\n

\nBut the resumption of hostilities in the summer of 2015 brought clashes to southeastern cities where round-the-clock curfews were declared. Since then, at least 4,280 people have been killed, including civilians, according to the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n

\nA string of bomb attacks claimed by PKK and its offshoots hit Turkish cities in 2016 and 2017 and the country\u2019s jets regularly strike PKK camps in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL: Thousands of supporters of a pro-Kurdish party gathered Sunday in Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and to attend a campaign rally for local elections that will test the Turkish president\u2019s popularity. The Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party, or HDP, held the event amid the municipal office races that have become polarizing and a government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}