HDP's Mr. Dengir's letter

Analyzing the HDP these days is the hardest of tasks. It is clear that society needs a party like the HDP. No one can ignore that it has a resonance in the Southeast, especially among Kurdish voters, that it appeals to a nationalism rising among certain segments of the Kurds, and that this appeal meets with a serious response.

However, seeing that responding to these expectations of Kurdish nationalists cannot carry it beyond a certain point as a political party, it is forced to open itself also to being of Turkey (Türkiyeli). The vision and road map of this opening were largely laid out by İmralı, and the HDP was founded as a result of this opening and took the BDP's place. In a sense, this opening required moving away from Kurdish nationalism and becoming a more Türkiyeli, more left-socialist structure. But since being left-socialist was thought insufficient for being Türkiyeli enough, it was said, "let us add a religious dimension too." After all, the Kurdish people are devout, and it was confirmed that the most important problem concerning the Kurds not yet persuaded was the PKK's atheist, left-socialist origin. However, this turn toward both the left and the devout disturbs the Kurdish nationalism that is the main axis within the HDP.

The HDP has a unit "responsible for expansion," which carries out studies on the fields and segments it can open up to, in order to break the HDP's molds. The latest openings are the product of this approach, but here too there is a problem that emerges while making openings, and there is another deep problem that has made itself strongly felt since the election. First, when you open up to so many different segments, it is easy to bring totally opposed or antagonistic segments together once, by chance, with a call, but how will you keep them together? Under what banner of cause will you gather devout Kurds and LGBT people, or socialist-atheist nationalist socialists and traditional Kurdish segments? What function can an HDP led by the likes of Ertuğrul Kürkçü or Figen Yüksekdağ have, other than realizing the desires of an elitist left politics that uses the Kurds?

Second, how will you stand against the tutelary ambition of Kandil, which has stirred again, especially after the election? It is clear that Kandil displayed an approach that, up to a point, left entirely meaningless, invalid and hanging in the air the openings of the HDP as a political party, which could have been met with understanding (with the right to criticize of course reserved). So much so that there is no longer even a ground for taking up and criticizing any word or action of the HDP at the level of political logic, because the HDP has no authority left. The PKK has seized the HDP's entire political existence. It has launched a wave of mad terror with an approach that treats the state's building of dams and roads as grounds for war. It is vain to expect the HDP to have the courage to turn and say anything to the PKK, which seized its political existence on the basis of this nonsensical pretext. The HDP has presented its existence as a gift to the PKK's existence, has trailed after it, and is busy sanctifying its terror and inventing excuses for it.

This being the case, a letter was published, addressed to President Erdoğan, by Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, who for years served as AK Parti deputy chairman and was elected in the last elections as an HDP deputy for Mersin. Fırat, reminding Erdoğan of his role as the most important architect of the resolution process, "respectfully" invites him to take charge of the situation and put the resolution process back on track. In trying to explain in his letter that, since neither ISIS had claimed the Suruç massacre nor the PKK the killing of the two police officers in Ceylanpınar, there was no situation that required starting this war, he says that Erdoğan's regarding the HDP as a political rival is incompatible with the country's interests.

Of course, a few questions must be asked of Mr. Dengir, who has no criticism whatsoever of the PKK, which kept none of its words throughout the resolution process and abused the whole process to further consolidate its own dominance in the region, nor of the HDP, with its debt to it, about some of the statements he voiced in his letter.

Dear Mr. Fırat,

- Why did you try to demonize in the eyes of the people almost the very person whom you yourself confirm in your letter to be the "most important architect of the process"? Why did you insistently and with extraordinary effort try to portray as an "enemy of the Kurds" Erdoğan, who, in the history of the Republic, has thought most of the honor, dignity, rights and well-being of the Kurds and has been ready to drink hemlock for this cause?

- You say "ISIS did not do it" about the suicide bombing in Suruç... Since you think there are foreign powers or some dark forces, why did you immediately after Suruç declare the AK Parti guilty through ISIS?

- Having declared the AK Parti guilty for this incident, why did you not condemn with a strong reaction those who immediately executed police officers in the name of "retaliation"?

- The PKK is at this moment attacking police stations in many provinces and targeting police and soldiers. It cuts the roads and sets fire to the TIR trucks carrying the food products that are the livelihood of the people of the region. While the PKK destroys the very resources of the people whose rights it claims to defend, why does the HDP not produce a discourse for the helplessness of this people, its natural base, and cannot stand up to the PKK for the sake of its people?

According to the conclusion drawn from your letter: if all the developments that ended the ceasefire were carried out by the hands of foreign powers, where do you position here the PKK, which attacks the Republic of Turkey from every point it finds an opportunity?

- You say to President Erdoğan, "the HDP chairs are not your political rivals." Then why did you and those HDP chairs target Recep Tayyip Erdoğan throughout the election?

- Why did you likewise load all the attacks onto Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by calling it a 'Palace Gladio'?

- You continue to try constantly to discredit Erdoğan, whom you too appreciate as the only chance of bringing the process to success. In this case, what kind of explanation will you be able to give your base that he will bring peace again?

- With your call to Erdoğan out in the open, where are we to put the calls coming from Kandil, "Arm yourselves, dig tunnels"? Do you intend to turn to them and say something as well?

You stress that "the HDP is not the PKK's arm." But how will you explain the numerous HDP statements which, chronologically, come first from Kandil and immediately after it parallel or attached to it?

If, given your position, you take it upon yourself to explain these, rest assured that you will contribute to peace, tranquility and the future of the Kurds as much as the contribution you hope for from Erdoğan. Do not be afraid, all you need to do is check whether you can show toward Demirtaş an opposition like the one you were able to show against Erdoğan while he was at the head of the AK Parti. Rest assured that what you can do within the HDP will be the determining factor in the process. That is all.