There is a tense atmosphere in Turkey in the run-up to the elections. Referring to the increasing violence in the election campaign, HDK co-spokesperson Esengül Demir stated that the government wants to create a climate of fear.
There is a tense atmosphere in Turkey ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections on 14 May. The incumbent President Erdoğan referred to the attempted military coup of 15 July 2016 and stated: "No matter what attacks we face, we will not question the will of the nation and our democracy. If necessary, we will defend our independence and our future with our lives, as we did on the night of 15 July." Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu called the elections a coup and TELE1 editor Merdan Yanardağ wrote on Twitter on Friday that an assassination attempt on presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the CHP is being planned. All sides are talking about possible attacks before, during or after the elections, and at the same time, the discourse is spreading that the Erdoğan government will not step down even if it loses the elections.
Esengül Demir is co-spokesperson of the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK), from which the HDP emerged and which, like the Labour and Freedom Alliance, supports the Green Left Party in the parliamentary elections.
Speaking to ANF, Demir referred to the increasing violence against the opposition during the election campaign and stressed that the government is trying to create a climate of fear: "There have been attacks on election booths, district associations and election offices of the Green Left Party. There have also been attacks against the IYI party and the CHP. Attempts are being made to unsettle society and make it fearful of going to the polls, but I don't think these attacks are effective enough and achieve the expected effect. We are a political movement that is prepared for such events. Between the elections on 7 June and 1 November 2015, there were attacks that led to major massacres. As a community that has experienced all this, we are prepared against attempts to make fear dominant again at this time."
The Green Left Party is a new name in the political party landscape and is contesting the parliamentary elections in place of the HDP, which is threatened with a ban, Demir noted and added: "We can see that the electorate of a political party that fights against injustices and inequities and is itself the target of attacks has grown compared to 2018. Therefore, the target of one hundred MPs is not an imaginary goal, but quite realistic."
