DIYARBAKIR (Sputnik) — Turkey will hold a general election on Sunday. The left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) will participate in the election for the first time.
The center of Diyarbakir is reported to be overcrowded by police, and several armored vehicles are on guard in the central city square and key streets. Police patrol the city in squads, according to RIA Novosti correspondent.
The city is decorated with HDP flags, with scant representation of the campaigns of other parties, including the ruling conservative AKP party and the social-democratic CHP, the two primary rivals in the nation-wide election.
The Kurds are Turkey's largest ethnic minority and comprise 25 percent of the country's population. Kurdish independence supporters, including the banned Turkey Kurdistan Workers' Party, have been fighting government forces since 1984.
