Erdogan’s threats to replace elected mayors could backfire
Turkey's president is reviving a bitter debate by threatening to nullify local election results in municipalities that elect mayors from pro-Kurdish parties.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could wind up facing voter backlash over his latest inflammatory statements regarding Turkey’s pro-Kurdish political parties.
At a Feb. 26 election rally in the town of Yozgat, Erdogan said that if mayoral candidates from pro-Kurdish parties win, he will replace them with appointed trustees. This attempt at intimidation seems to have already backfired on him in predominantly Kurdish regions.
Erdogan has specifically targeted parties he says are affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the United States and other countries consider a terrorist group. Painting with a broad brush, he implied links between the PKK and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Kurdish-friendly Republican People’s Party (CHP).
After Erdogan's speech in Yozgat, the HDP and CHP fired back with their own threat to lodge a criminal complaint against the president for having "tarnished" their reputations.
