Kurdish voters reluctantly back Kilicdaroglu

In the heart of the Kurdish southeast, voter clarity has been clouded by the questionable alliance between Kemal Kilicdaroglu and a far-right party.

In the first round of the presidential election, Kurdish voters rallied behind the opposition candidate, giving him more support than in his stronghold of Izmir in the west.

It was almost unheard of for Kurdish voters to give that many votes to a candidate from the Republican People's Party (CHP), which has a long history of hostility towards the minority population.

But the will to vote President Recep Tayyip Erdogan out of office seemed to trump all else. 

'In this system, the Kurds are already ignored. Let them fight their own. What they do is also none of my business'

- Diyarbakir resident

However, after Kilicdaroglu failed to secure a win in the first round, he adopted a harsher nationalist tone and struck an alliance with the ultranationalist politician Umit Ozdag, an unpopular figure among Kurds.

This has raised questions on whether voter turnout would be muted in Kurdish-dominated areas in the southeast.

A resident of Diyarbakir, a Kurdish majority province with two million population, said she was not voting because neither side has offered the Kurds anything.

When asked whether her decision could help Erdogan in the race, the 25-year-old, who did not wish to reveal her name, said she didn't care.

"This does not concern me at all. In this system, the Kurds are already ignored. Let them fight their own. What they do is also none of my business," she told MEE.

Despite this, voter turnout in Diyarbakir appeared to be high, according to an MEE correspondent.

Nihat Alakus, who cast his ballot at Sait Pasa Secondary School with his wife and two daughters, said the alliance with Ozdag did not change anything for him.

"Ozdag himself and his discourses do not concern us. We want a democratic change in the management of the country. Our main request is for Erdogan to go. That's why we voted for change," the 65-year-old tradesman told MEE.

Aydin Kizil, 43, who voted at Ali Emiri Secondary School in Yenisehir District, said he voted for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the parliamentary elections on 14 May, but choose to go with Kilicdaroglu for the presidency.

"Our party took the majority in the parliament. If they were in the minority in the parliament, I would vote for Erdogan," Kizil told MEE.

"However, a party and its leader should not be given so much power. That's why I voted for Kilicdaroglu, albeit unintentionally."