Fears for Turkey ballot as Kurdish conflict deepens

Curfews, street barricades and armed police everywhere: the unrest in Turkey's mainly-Kurdish southeast is likely to have an impact on the upcoming election but it also risks spelling a defeat for democracy.

Nestled near the border with Syria and Iraq, the city of Cizre became a symbol of the bloody conflict after violent clashes between Turkish security forces and the youth wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) last month. 

The government said that up to 32 Kurdish militants were killed during the nine-day curfew imposed on the city, but human rights associations said 21 of of them were civilians in an assault which terrified residents and transformed this city of 120,000 people into a warzone.

Among the victims was Zeynep Taskin, an 18-year-old mother who was cut down by a sniper's bullet as she stood on her doorstep, her nine-month-old baby Berxwedan in her arms. Her mother-in-law Masallah, who rushed to her aid, was also killed.

"Here is the only weapon his mother was carrying," Masallah's husband Ahmet said, pointing to the wounded infant.

The region has become a thorn the side for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

His ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its majority for the first time in over a decade in June's inconclusive election, while the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) celebrated historic results.

The state says the rebels are coercing people here into supporting them, and on Tuesday Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened legal action against anyone pressuring voters ahead of the fresh ballot on November 1.