Instrumentalizing migrants for political purposes in Turkish elections

The pro-Kurdish parties in Turkey announced today, Thursday, the support of the opposition presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in the run-off in the presidential elections next Sunday, without mentioning his name, a day after expressing their anger at his agreement with a far-right party.

Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finished with a comfortable lead in the first round of voting on May 14, despite the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) backing of Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan was very close to getting the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

Officials from the HDP and their Green Left allies said they were seeking change in the runoff, and their position remained the same, but they did not mention Kilicdaroglu by name.

Pervin Buldan, co-chair of the HDP, said they will vote on Sunday to end Erdogan's "one-man regime".

She added, "The strange system that Erdogan and his partners established is the cause of the societal problems that we suffer from. What will be voted on on May 28 is the extent to which this strange system can continue or not."

Buldan also criticized the campaign's rhetoric in which immigrants are used for political purposes, and the practices of state-appointed trustees.

"The problem of refugees and migrants can only be solved by fighting for peace against the politics of war," Buldan said.