More than 60 million voters are called to the polls on Sunday May 28 for the second round of the presidential election in Turkey. The opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu has a comfortable lead in the Kurdish majority areas, where the tension has risen a notch.
An imposing black armored vehicle enters the alley where Ismet lives, in Cizre, a Kurdish town near the Syrian border. Since the first round of the presidential election in Turkey, she has seen the patrols of the Turkish gendarmerie pass under her windows, firing tear gas canisters at nightfall. “One evening I opened the door, and the gas took my breath away, my eyes closed, I thought I was going to die. They are causing us problems because we voted for Kemal Kiliçdaroglu”.
The Social Democrat won 44.9% of the vote in the first round on May 14, 2023, behind Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (49.5%) who is seeking a new term. But Kemal Kiliçdaroglu has the support of the HDP. The main pro-Kurdish party calls for blocking the outgoing president. Thus, for two weeks, tension has been rising in the south-east of Turkey, which is largely occupied by the Kurds. Turkish security forces have reinforced their presence in some strongholds. “They want to intimidate people into not going to vote,” denounces Ismet before interrupting himself. Gunshots ring out a few streets away.
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Local authorities say the recent unrest began when young supporters of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, opened fire on the evening of the first round of the presidential election. A version denied by Zindan, 23, seated in a cafe on the banks of the Tigris River. “They wanted people to believe that if they vote for Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, there will be tension in the street, throwing of projectiles, shooting in the air… This is the work of provocateurs.”
The wounds of the past
At the bend of a street, bullet holes are still visible on a wall. Here, in 2015 and 2016, terrible fights took place in the middle of the city. Hezni, mother of two PKK supporters, never saw the face of her children again. “Eight years have passed and I am still looking for my daughter’s body. My son’s was returned to me without his head. The war in Cizre was not a normal war. They burned them alive with chemical weapons. Our children were shouting: ‘We are here!’ I can still hear their screams. I can still smell the smell of burning flesh.”
Sunday, May 28, she will vote for Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, even if he claims Turkish nationalism. Mesut, local HDP official, is campaigning for the opposition candidate or rather against the outgoing president. “Do the Kurds like Kiliçdaroglu? I swear they don’t even know who it is. But we want Erdoğan gone. So do we have another option?” The pro-Kurdish party the inhabitants of Cizre to go to the polls calmly, despite the tension which reigns in the city.