Turkey: HDP says no official alliance talks with CHP

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

Turkey’s main opposition party has not had any official talks on an election alliance with the People's Democratic Party (HDP), said an HDP spokesman on Friday.

"We have not had any official talks with the CHP," or Republican People's Party, Hakki Saruhan Oluc told reporters in parliament.

"On an alliance, if we look from the viewpoint of western provinces, we think that a large democracy alliance should be made," said Oluc, looking ahead to Turkey’s March 2019 local elections.

Oluc called on "all political structures that take part in opposition to forge an alliance against the leadership in the upcoming local elections."

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has accused the HDP as acting as a political branch of the PKK, a terrorist group that has taken some 40,000 lives in Turkey.