Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is behind the operation to shut down the pro-Kurdish HDP party, with the far-right Bahçeli as cover. This is what well-known political analyst Yavuz Baidar argues, speaking to OPEN. He stresses that the decision was recently taken in a secret meeting.
«I believe that these two political figures (Erdogan and Bahçeli) have common ground. They always act in cooperation. They met twice recently, once privately at Bahceli's house and a week ago the two of them met at another place. They work in agreement. It's a give and take situation,» he says.
«If the HDP is shut down and 687 party associates and political figures are banned from political activity for at least five years, it will be very difficult for the HDP to prepare a list of candidates for the upcoming elections. Most of them are in prison, some are in detention and others are being prosecuted, and some are in self-exile in Germany,» he noted, among other things.
