New Diyarbakir mayor backs opposition candidate in Istanbul election rerun
The new HDP mayor of Diyarbakir calls for a Kurdish vote against the AKP in Istanbul's mayoral election rerun and says his AKP predecessor has left Diyarbakir in the poorhouse.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — In the coming election in Istanbul, the Kurds will “stand by the victim against the usurper,” the new mayor of Diyarbakir, Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli, says.
“We will not allow thieves like [Binali] Yildirim to succeed,” Mizrakli told Al-Monitor in an interview in the city’s cultural center, referring to the candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Mizrakli had been asked which way he would like his Kurdish brethren in Istanbul to vote now that the Supreme Electoral Council has invalidated the March 31 election in Turkey’s biggest city and called a new poll for June 23.
