Diyarbakir, Turkey---With fireworks and gunshots, Turkey's Kurds celebrated their biggest-ever breakthrough in Turkish politics on Sunday, revelling in the blow dealt to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Cars cruised through the streets of the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, with drivers honking and people hanging out from windows making 'V' signs as occasional gunshots were fired into the air.
Results showed the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) and its charismatic leader Selahattin Demirtas easily passed the 10 percent barrier needed to win seats in parliament, with the HDP's 13 percent vote share guaranteeing them 79 MPs.
The results will give the Kurds -- who, with 20 percent of Turkey's population, are the country's biggest minority -- true representation in parliament.
In Diyarbakir, supporters were ululating, dancing and shouting the party's election slogan: "We are the HDP, we are going to the parliament."
"It is a carnival night," said 47-year-old Huseyin Durmaz, a Kurd.
"We no longer trust the AKP," he said, referring to Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, which lost its majority in the 550-seat parliament.
According to 34-year-old Aytac Bayram, meanwhile, Diyarbakir had last "seen such a night of celebration during the liberation of Kobane".
Kurdish fighters, backed by US-led air strikes, drove Islamic State jihadists from the key Syrian town of Kobane in January -- a key symbolic and strategic blow against the militant group which has emboldened the Kurdish movement in Turkey.
The HDP's move to parliament for the first time as a party -- its MPs had sat in the previous parliament, but they were elected as independents -- comes against the backdrop of a bomb attack that killed two people at the Diyarbakir rally just ahead of the elections.
- 'A warning' -
"The HDP's rise symbolises the unity of the Kurds and is one step closer to democracy," said HDP supporter Yalman.
"It is a warning against (the) AKP and dictatorship," he said.
Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics after over a decade as prime minister, but he and the AKP suffered in the national polls from a dip in economic growth and controversy over Erdogan's perceived authoritarian tendencies
His active involvement in the election campaign was also controversial, with Erdogan delivering daily speeches at rallies -- a move condemned by opponents as violating the constitution, given that as head of state he is required to keep an equal distance from all parties.
AFP
