Turkey, which has experienced how the Iraq and Syria crisis opened space for the PKK terrorist organization, continues dialogue with all parties in order to prevent the Iran crisis from reaching a similar stage.
For instance, it was no secret that the HDP, which is the political branch of the PKK, openly supported the CHP’s candidate – although the CHP did not address questions concerning an obvious CHP-HDP cooperation.
The decision to place the Muslim Brotherhood in the same category as Daesh, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the PKK – groups that have been responsible for the killing of thousands of civilians – will be refused by the international community and will bring new criticism towards Washington.
More to the point, despite suffering several blows in the last few years such as the Gezi Park events, the 17-25 December “judiciary” coup attempt, PKK and DAESH terror attacks, and most importantly the July 15 military coup attempt, the Turkish economy managed to keep on track, grew well and averted an economic meltdown.
The election campaigns were mostly shaped by Turkish foreign and security policies concerning the Syrian crisis, the PKK, and the fight against terrorism.
Furthermore, in the north east, the so called Syrian Democratic Forces - of which the PKK’s Syrian wing, the YPG, make up the bulk of the force, are on a crash course with the locals, Arab tribes, and Daesh sleeper cells.
Quite the opposite, the AK Party increased its votes in the region and this tells us that the AK Party’s stiff counterterrorism measures against the PKK have also damaged the PKK’s political wing, the HDP.
To that end, Parliament passed Law No 7102 last year, which introduced the relocation of ballot boxes in order to merge ballot boxes for the prevention of possible pressures of the PKK terrorist organization on the electorate and to enable easier access to ballot boxes for the electorate who are unable to go to polling stations.
rom Ankara’s perspective, the PKK (the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and its Syria-based offshoot pose the most serious threat to Turkey’s national security.