Only 100 people at HDP rally in eastern Turkey


After struggling to distance itself from PKK terrorists, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is facing new political woes, this time in the eastern province of Ağrı, where less than 100 people showed up for an HDP rally; despite the region's known support for the HDP.HDP Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ gave a speech at the rally in Ağrı, where the party received nearly 70 percent of the vote in the Nov. 1 elections, not hiding her astonishment at the low turnout at the HDP rally.The low turnout numbers come as a shock in a province where thousands gathered for democracy watches in the wake of the July 15 coup attempt. HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş labeled millions of citizens who attended the democracy rallies DAESH supporters.HDP-affiliated mayor rebuffed by family of bombing victimsDiyarbakır Mayor Gülten Kışanak, a member of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the People's Democratic Party (HDP) affiliate in the southeastern region, was turned away when she went to pay a condolence visit to families of victims of the PKK in the Sur district of Diyarbakır. Kışanak, together with fellow party members, went to visit the house of five citizens killed in a PKK attack last week.The PKK targeted a police squad in the Sur district with an explosive-laden vehicle. Among those killed in the attack were two children aged 3 years old.The family of the bombing victims refused to open their doors to Kışanak and her fellow party members. The family said, "We do not want to see those who do not favor the Turkish flag and our motherland."