KURDISH ELECTIONS VICTORY IN TURKEY !

by Roni Alasor and Lorin Sarkisian

Brussels, 8 June 2015 - Middle East Diplomatic (MED) - Despite all the terror attacks, bombs and the casualties during the campaign, the Kurdish Peoples` Democratic Party (HDP) surpassed all expectations and got 13 % of the vote and gained 80 parliamentarians in last Sunday election in Turkey. 31 of HDP elected members are women. The rest are Kurds, Christian Armenians and Syriacs, Yezidi-Kurds, Turks, Alevits, Arabs and the other mosaics of Turkey.

In a statement, the President of the EU Parliament, Martin Schulz said that “the outcome of these elections now offers an opportunity to move from polarisation to dialogue, to reinforce the checks and balances in the system and to face the many challenges Turkey is confronted with: from a cooling economy to a testy foreign policy”.

Turkey’s parliamentary elections designed a new parliament with richer and more multicultural composition. For the first time in the history of the modern Turkish republic,  Turks, Kurds, Christian Armenians and Syriacs, Yezidi-Kurds, Arabs, Muslims, Alevits and others will sit together and represent their communities in the 550-Members Assembly. The number of women in the new parliament also reaches an all time record: 97 women parliamentarians will sit in the new Assembly, among them nearly one third (31) are from the pro-Kurdish party HDP.

Despite all the several hundreds of attacks, bombs, killings and the casualties during the campaign, HDP surpassed all expectations and got 13 % of the vote and 80 members, which makes them equal in number of parliamentarians with extremist Turkish right wing MHP. The Kemalist and statuesque CHP got second place with 132 seats, AKP achieved a result of 258 Parliamentarians, which is a decrease of 53 seats in comparison with the previous legislature.

The main challenge in the coming weeks will be for AKP to form a coalition government or to rule as a weak majority. In both cases, the continuation of the peace process between Turks and Kurds will be crucial for the stability in the country.