Former HDP co-chair Demirtaş points to İYİ Party over failure to agree on joint presidential candidate

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Jailed former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said that if the HDP and the six-party opposition Nation Alliance fail to agree on a joint presidential candidate for the upcoming elections, it will be the fault of the “nationalist wing.”

“If there is no agreement on a joint candidate for the first round (of the elections), the HDP would of course field its own candidate. If the (presidential) elections are left to the second round, what will be done will be decided based on the circumstances then. It is not possible to say something definite with regards to the HDP’s stance right now. The HDP is displaying the most reconciliatory attitude concerning these issues. If there is no consensus on a joint candidate, everyone should know that the nationalist wing of the Table of Six will be the one responsible for this,” Demirtaş said.

Demirtaş made the comments while answering the questions of PİRHA, the news agency of Turkey’s Alevi community.

The renowned Kurdish politician’s remarks concern center-right İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener’s previous remarks that the party will not “sit at a table where the HDP is present.”

Demirtaş also said that he believed the Alevi community wants a change of the rulership and is not falling for the new moves of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (AKP) to purportedly address the community’s problems.

“I am sure that there is not a single Alevi citizen who is falling for AKP-MHP fascism’s games. Therefore, Alevis should not even take (Interior Minister) Süleyman Soylu and (President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan’s cheap moves to their agenda and talk about them. I have no doubt that Alevis will use their organized powers in favor of a change in the (upcoming) elections and will give the AKP-MHP the clearest answer,” Demirtaş said.