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France 24
France 24
World
Leela JACINTO

Turkey’s Kurdish areas serve as petri dish for illiberal democracy test

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey May 29, 2023. © Umit Bektas, Reuters

From our special correspondent in DIYARBAKIR, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been reelected in a runoff that experts say is the latest trend in the rise of illiberal democracies. The Kurdish heartland of Diyarbakir has been there before, but now it has spread from the periphery to the centre, and probably beyond Turkey’s borders.

The tables were crammed with men playing dominoes at a popular kiraathane, or traditional coffee house, in the Kurdish stronghold of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey when the polls closed at 5pm local time in the country’s crunch presidential runoff.

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