Before the second round of the presidential elections in Turkey, it has become clear that the Kurds are once again in a key position. Ibrahim Akin, co-spokesperson of the Green Left Party and MP from Izmir, spoke to ANF about the elections of 14 May and the run-off election on Sunday between presidential candidates Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AKP) and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (CHP).

Akin noted that the AKP/MHP went into the 14 May elections with all the resources of the state and the bureaucracy and that the Green Left Party, under whose banner the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) contested the parliamentary elections due to the closure case against it, was put under pressure by the judiciary and state forces. In Kurdistan in particular, the security of the elections and the ballot boxes were guaranteed.

Assessing the 14 May election results, Akın said that the club of repression in the Kurdish provinces had a strong impact: "Despite the pressure, our voters stood up for their will and the Green Left Party became the first party in the region with significantly more votes than the others. Our party also became the third largest party in Turkey in terms of the number of MPs it won across the country."

Nevertheless, the Green Left Party did not achieve its goals, Akin noted, adding: “There has been a loss of votes, for which there were various reasons. After the run-off election on Sunday, these reasons are to be analysed and dealt with in a process of criticism and self-criticism with the party executives and alliance components.”

Commenting on the composition of the parliament, Akin said: "When we look at the parliamentary arithmetic that has emerged after the parliamentary elections, we see that there may be considerable difficulties in creating a democratic, participatory, egalitarian and ecological constitution. We all now have bigger tasks in building a democratic order in the second century of the republic. As the Alliance for Labour and Freedom, we made a strategic decision in the presidential elections to push back Erdoğan's one-man regime. We have fulfilled this decision. The voters of the Green Left Party have also accepted and embraced this strategic decision. By this decision, Erdoğan did not win in the first round. The will of the voters of the Green Left Party was decisive in preventing Erdoğan from being elected in the first round."

Even in the run-off election on 28 May, the Green Left Party will stick to its principles in defence of democracy and freedom, said Akin and continued: "Of course, elections are not the only means to wage a struggle for democracy and freedom, but if we cannot make the elections a process in which this struggle can be waged, neither the ballot box nor the votes cast will have any meaning. Since the beginning of this electoral process, we have always emphasised principles rather than discussing names, and we are still at the same point. Either we stand by the idea of democracy, peace, fraternity, equality and justice, or we are against it. Today's one-man regime is the regime that has put up a front against democracy and peace."

Akin stressed that the elections on 28 May were important for the establishment of law and justice. “Voters must go to the polls one more time to get rid of the fascist government and overthrow the dictator. We must not allow fascism to win. We will go to the polls and determine the result. We have done it before, and we will do it again. On 14 May, we stopped fascism by stopping Erdoğan in the first round of the elections. On 28 May, we will vote for the defeat of fascism. We know that one election will not change everything. But for many things to change, some things have to change first. On 28 May we will vote to overthrow the one man, as a first step to changing many things. We call on people to go to the ballot box to stand against those who market the future of the country, against the mentality that divides society and sets it against each other, and to drive out the one man and his profiteering partners. We call on our people to go to the polls and cast their votes to overthrow the one man. First we will stop the fascism of the government and then we will continue our struggle for democracy with a stronger breath."