Eight people were killed in isolated clashes in Turkey on Sunday during municipal elections that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan hopes will validate him in his battle against a corruption scandal and a string of damaging security leaks. The voting may have become a crisis referendum on the rule of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party and he has been crisscrossing the nation of 77 million during weeks of hectic campaigning to rally his conservative core voters.
Voting went ahead peacefully in most parts of the country but fights broke out between groups supporting rival candidates in two villages near the southeastern border with Syria. Six people were killed in a shoot-out in Sanliurfa province while two more died in a village in Hatay, security officials said. The clashes were over local council positions and were not directly linked to the wider tensions in the country. The level of support for Erdogan will be crucial for his Islamist-rooted AK Party’s political survival as well as his possible bid to become the president in August. ‘Today it is what the people say which matters rather than what was said in the city squares,’ Erdogan told reporters as he voted in Istanbul, his supporters chanting ‘Turkey is proud of you’ as he left the polling station. Erdogan has purged some 7,000 people from the judiciary and police since anti-graft raids in December targeting businessmen close to him and sons of ministers.
Voting went ahead peacefully in most parts of the country but fights broke out between groups supporting rival candidates in two villages near the southeastern border with Syria. Six people were killed in a shoot-out in Sanliurfa province while two more died in a village in Hatay, security officials said. The clashes were over local council positions and were not directly linked to the wider tensions in the country. The level of support for Erdogan will be crucial for his Islamist-rooted AK Party’s political survival as well as his possible bid to become the president in August. ‘Today it is what the people say which matters rather than what was said in the city squares,’ Erdogan told reporters as he voted in Istanbul, his supporters chanting ‘Turkey is proud of you’ as he left the polling station. Erdogan has purged some 7,000 people from the judiciary and police since anti-graft raids in December targeting businessmen close to him and sons of ministers.