Government party is trying to manipulate local government elections

The Turkish government party AKP is evidently trying to manipulate the forthcoming local elections this Sunday to the disadvantage of the Kurdish ethnic group in the south-east of the country. The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in Göttingen has considerable evidence to prove this. The human rights organisation reported on Wednesday that police and army would make strictly sure that pro-Kurdish election meetings and pro-Kurdish election material are prevented. Election bill-boards are being torn down and young election helpers are being beaten and mishandled. Government offices have also announced that any commune in which the pro-Kurdish party wins the election is excluded from receiving any government assistance and investment.

There is also according to information received by the GfbV dispute on the number of persons eligible to vote. While in the parliamentary election of July 2007 there were 42.6 million, the number now registered by the supreme electoral authority (YSK) is 48.2 million – a difference of 5.6 million. The electoral authorities are accused by the Kurdish opposition politicians of making up the lists with many non-existent persons and serving soldiers as voters in other communes. In 81 provinces of Turkey candidates of 19 parties are competing for some 200,000 places of mayor and other offices.

The more influential of the two pro-Kurdish parties, DTP and HAK PAR, is the DTP. Its election slogan is "Let us make 2009 the year of the peaceful solution of the Kurdish question”. So it is placing democratic means for the national rights of the Kurds at the centre of its programme. The DTP is the only competitor to the ruling AKP which can be taken seriously.

The Turkish government party is trying with the support of the army and the media to "re-conquer” the Kurdish region by all means at its disposal. It is giving contradictory signals. On the one hand it has relaxed the prohibition of the Kurdish culture and language. On the other however party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan uses extreme nationalistic statements like "Love it or leave it” (Ya sev, ya terk et) or "One people, one language, one flag”, thus continuing the traditional politics of suppression of the Kurds. The AKP is also misusing the judiciary to steamroller Kurdish politicians with a mass of court cases. Prominent Kurdish politicians like Leyla Zana, who had good chances of being elected, are being charged and thus prevented from running for office...