For the sake of brevity, Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is often identified as “pro-Kurdish.” But that descriptor is overly simplistic. The HDP is a pro-peace, bottom-up, left alliance that was born out of the Kurdish political movement and has become a key actor whenever ballot boxes are set up across Turkey.

Tomorrow, Turkey’s citizens will once again cast their votes in a crucial contest, this time at the local level. The HDP is running its campaign under the Kurdish slogan “Ya Me Ye,” or “It’s ours.” The phrase refers to the ninety-five HDP-run municipalities forcibly seized by the ruling government in 2016 and the arrest of ninety-four elected co-mayors, the party’s co-chairs, and several of its members of parliament.

The crackdown came after the HDP eclipsed the 10 percent threshold needed for parliamentary representation in the June 2015 elections — a major electoral setback for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s autocratic government was denied an absolute majority and, at least momentarily, blocked from installing the presidential system Erdoğan coveted. (Erdoğan later got his wish when voters narrowly approved a constitutional referendum in April 2017, handing him quasi-dictatorial powers.)