Can the HDP separate its policies now?

Suruç is a small but very mysterious place to be. It has one big street that hosts both the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) town headquarters and the police station only 300 meters apart from each other. When we were there last year, during the first influx of refugees from Kobane, families were camping in the yard of the Amara Cultural Center grounds. There were empty, unfinished buildings that had become homes for the Syrian Kurds and Arabs who fled the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terror. 

The terrorist attack in Suruç was a watershed event for Turkey?s perception of threat on its southern border. But it poses a bigger challenge for the HDP. Now, after enjoying 40 days of electoral success and 80 MPs in the Turkish parliament, the HDP?s top brass has to decide whether they are truly a party of Turkey or not. 

The HDP has to live up to its promise of ?greater humanity? by separating its policies from the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK). According to some intelligence analysts, the attack in Suruç could actually be a catalyst for the HDP to separate itself from violence and adopt true peace as its policy base. After all, if HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirta? wants the peace talks to resume, he has to prove to his voters in Istanbul, ?zmir etc. that he can defend the rights of the innocent police officers killed in Ceylanp?nar as strongly as the victims of the Suruç attack.

This is also an opportunity for Demirta?, fellow co-chair Figen Yüksekda? and the party to come to maturity in dealing with the Turkish state apparatus. The HDP may not be a partner of a coalition yet, but if it is strong enough to push the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Republican People?s Party (CHP) to form one, it also has to come clean of...