As Turkey braces for snap elections on June 24, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) risks losing the support of an important segment of its base — conservative Kurds — due to its sharp shift to hard-line nationalism. A major question now is how to lure the vote of the resentful Kurds, who are emerging as a key player in the elections.

Recent surveys suggest that Kurdish voters could become kingmakers in the crucial legislative and presidential polls, which will mark Turkey’s transition to a new governance system headed by an omnipotent president. In an unprecedented flurry of contacts, opposition parties are looking for various forms of cooperation to beat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in what many see as the last chance to save Turkish democracy.

Kadir Atalay, the owner of the PIAR polling company, said the predominantly pious Kurdish supporters of the AKP and Erdogan are no longer on board. Atalay told Al-Monitor that the main reason Kurds backed Erdogan was their trust in his commitment to resolve the Kurdish question, and that now, after the U-turn he made, they feel “deceived and abandoned.”

Ahmet Faruk Unsal, a conservative Kurd who served as an AKP lawmaker but has now fallen out with the party, confirms the deep sense of disappointment among the Kurds.