Monday, September 21, 2015

As Turkish Election Looms, Erdogan Presses Pro-Kurdish Opposition

 
Reuters, 21/09 17:33 CET

By Orhan Coskun and Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – At an “anti-terrorism rally” this weekend, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan looked out over a sea of red national flags and implored supporters to vote on Nov.1 for “domestic” candidates.

“I think you understand what I mean, don’t you?” he thundered to the crowds in Istanbul’s working-class district of Yenikapi, where pro-government media said hundreds of thousands came out to protest against violence in the restive southeast.

Erdogan’s target was clear to all: the pro-Kurdish opposition, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), that had helped strip the ruling AK Party of its majority in June. A vote for them, he suggested, was a vote against Turkey.

Erdogan and the AKP he founded have gone on the offensive, accusing the HDP of ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Washington and Ankara.

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Source: Euronews

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