75 Parliamentarians out of 340 AKP parliamentarians are Kurds.
This is why Erdogan recently began calling his party the "true representative of the Kurds."
In August 2005, during a keynote speech in Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital city of the Kurdish area, the prime minister publicly admitted that the state had made mistakes in its relations with the country's around twelve million Kurds. "The Kurdish problem is everyone's problem and mine in particular," said Erdogan at the time.
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He stated that as long as the idea of belonging to the Turkish nation was accepted as a main identity, individuals were free to develop their own sub-identity.
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According to government information, billions of euros have flowed into the southeast of the country in recent years.
In cities like Diyarbakir, this funding (...) have resulted in the establishment of small islands of prosperity.
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Erdogan succeeded in capturing the greatest number of seats in the Kurdish areas of southeast Anatolia, coming ahead of all the other parties, including the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)
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In Turkey's southeast provinces, the country's central Kurdish region, Erdogan's party won almost
52 percent of the votes – some five percentage points higher than the national average. In Diyarbakir, the AKP improved upon its 16 percent vote in 2002, winning 41 percent this time.
Qantara.de - Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Source = Islam portal founded by various German organizations, including Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institution Goethe-Institute.
