Turkey’s Kurds are joining the coalition to oust Erdogan

NILUFER Elik Yilmaz’sHDPAKMHPHDP MP tenure as mayor of Kiziltepe, a town in Turkey’s south-east, was short-lived. In November 2019, seven months after she was elected, Mrs Yilmaz, a member of the People’s Democratic Party, Turkey’s main Kurdish one, was ousted by the interior ministry and replaced by a government appointee. Weeks later, she was locked up on terrorist charges. Freed on parole over a year later, she was recently sentenced to more than six years in prison, pending appeal. Across the Kurdish south-east, stories like hers are the rule, not the exception. Of the 171 mayors elected on the ’s ticket in the past decade, some 154 have been dismissed or prevented from taking office. Dozens have been arrested. “This cycle has to end,” says Mrs Yilmaz. But that all depends on Turkey’s upcoming elections.Turks will elect parliament and president on the same day, May 14th. The outcome may hinge on the Kurds. Recent polls suggest that neither the governing coalition, composed of the Justice and Development () party and the Nationalist Action Party (), nor the main opposition bloc, the Nation Alliance, will be able to hold a parliamentary majority. The can expect to take at least 10% of the vote, which could make its s kingmakers.