Dashed hopes decays AKP support in Turkey's southeastern
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Residents of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeastern region, which had been expecting to see progress towards a solution of the Kurdish issue ahead of the elections, withdrew support for the ruling party, the leader of the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, said on Monday.
"Our people, who were hopeful for progress in the Kurdish issue, have withdrawn their support (to the ruling party)," Ahmet Turk, said at a press meeting, where he assessed the results of the local elections.
In the general elections of July 2007, the DTP was overshadowed by the ruling Justice and Development, or AKP’s, phenomenal success in the country’s southeastern region.
The pro-Kurdish DTP won the mayoral contest in eight of the 81 provinces including
DTP mayor of the city, Osman Baydemir, who was re-elected on Sunday sweeping to victory with 66.5 percent of the vote, had recently termed the city “our castle.”
In response, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had vowed to “take that castle.” But his party’s candidate, Kutbettin Arzu, managed to gain only 30.6 percent of the votes.