The Turkish presidential election seen by the Kurds in Iraq and Syria

The second round of the presidential election in Turkey will take place on Sunday 28 May. Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will challenge his center-left opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. They respectively obtained 49.51% and 44.88% of the votes in the first round. Kurds from Syria and Iraq are closely watching an election that may have repercussions for them and members of their minority in Turkey.

Erdogan has supporters in Iraqi Kurdistan

This result satisfies the power in Iraqi Kurdistan where this election is closely followed. Its president Nerchivan Barzani called Recep Tayyip Erdogan to wish him victory in the election. The Kurdistan Democratic Party maintains very good relations with Ankara. The engine of this friendship is trade. Conversely, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (UPK), the second party in power, maintains icy relations with Turkey.

In Syria, the YPG hopes the defeat of the outgoing president

On the other side of the border, the Kurdish militia which controls northeastern Syria is also directly opposed to the outgoing Turkish president. The YPG, the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is classified as a terrorist organization. Some YPG officials compare Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Adolf Hitler, accusing him of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Kurdish populations. The other candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, who has allied himself with a pro-Kurdish party, hardened his tone against the PKK during the interval between the two rounds.