Jailed Kurdish leader says Erdogan seeking pre-election ‘chaos’ but will fail

A jailed Kurdish leader said an attempt to ban his leftist party was part of Tayyip Erdogan's plans to foment "chaos" in Turkey's opposition ahead of elections this year, but said it would not save the president from defeat after two decades in power.

In comments to Reuters from Edirne jail in northwest Turkey, Selahattin Demirtas urged the country's main opposition bloc to cooperate with his pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to win presidential and parliamentary elections expected in May.

However, the HDP's own future is far from assured: a prosecutor has sought to close the party for links to Kurdish militants, the culmination of a years-long crackdown against the third largest party in Turkey's parliament.

Demirtas, who is no longer party leader but remains a key political figure despite being in jail since 2016, said Erdogan and his nationalist...