Battle for Kurdish vote turns violent, leaves four dead in Turkey's Suruc
Four people were killed during campaigning in a mainly Kurdish town last week, and the government and the opposition are trading blame over escalating tensions ahead of the June 24 election.
Four people have been killed in the run-up to Turkey’s election, staining what had been a largely peaceful election campaign and exposing electoral fault lines in the final days of the bitterly contested vote.
Tensions between supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) erupted into a firefight on June 14 in the mainly Kurdish town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The clash was a brutal reminder of how the battle to form the next Turkish government may come down to how Kurds, about 20% of the electorate, decide to vote.
