According to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the parliamentary election of June 7 in Turkey was marked by active citizen participation in campaigns and by a high turnout on polling day. The report drafted by Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL), was approved on June 21 by the Assembly and stresses that voters could choose from a wide range of political parties but the 10 percent threshold to enter the parliament limited political pluralism. PACE reiterated its request to Turkish authorities that they lower this threshold substantially in the future.

However, the parliamentarians expressed their concerns over the “high number of attacks on party offices and serious incidents of physical attacks during the campaigns,” some of which resulted in fatalities. They asked that the results of the investigations launched by the authorities “should be made public as soon as possible and perpetrators should be brought before the courts.”

In his speech, Tony Kox drew attention to the importance of HDP’s success of surpassing the threshold, but said that the attacks on the party during the campaign period, President Erdoğan’s intervention in the elections, and the inequalities between the level of opportunities available to political parties cast shadow on the elections. Kox criticised the 10 percent electoral threshold and added that HDP’s success is a sign of maturity in Turkish democracy. Kox added that their report is important; but the actual place to assess the election results is the Turkish parliament.

Member of the Left Group, Anrej Hunko from Die Linke in Germany said the elections marked a turning point in Turkey and the results are not only a success for the Kurds but also for all democracy forces. Hunko added that it is the beginning of new period for all forces of democracy, and criticised the Turkish president for not remaining neutral in the elections. Hunko recalled the attacks targeting HDP during the pre-election period and stressed that the government had responsibility in these attacks.

PACE Turkey reporter Josette Durrieu stressed that Kurds gained a double victory in the elections where the clear loser was Erdoğan. Durrieu said Kurds overcame the unjust electoral threshold and gained representation in the parliament on the one hand, whereas they brought the Kurdish question, the most important problem of the country, into the foreground of the political agenda on the other hand. Durrieu also stressed that the elections were not fairly and recalled the intervention of the President in the election campaign. Durrieu further added that Kurds made a new and important move in their struggle, and would concentrate more on the political field through participation in the parliament.

CHP member Gülsün Bilgehan also spoke at the session and stressed the importance of HDP’s success in increasing women’s participation and overcoming the threshold. A member of the parliament from Hungary said that the Kurdish issue is the main issue awaiting solution, while another member from Spain said Erdogan’s intervention and the mainstream media’s partisan attitude were not acceptable. Another member from the Netherlands drew attention to the fact that the bomb attack on HDP rally in Amed did not appear much on mainstream media, and emphasized that some media organs were engaged in a partisan attitude during the election period. She further said Kurds once again proved that they were the true defenders of democracy.