JINHA

AMED – In the city of Diyarbakır, shaken just three days before by the bloody bombing of a HDP rally, the HDP elections victory had a special significance. Hundreds of thousands gathered for a mass celebration of the victory in the city's Newroz Park.

Celebrations of the HDP victory have been ongoing virtually nonstop since it became clear on Sunday night that the party had passed the 10% electoral threshold. Yesterday, the celebrations moved to the city's huge Newroz Park. The new HDP candidates, a delegation of representatives from the Southern Kurdish PUK and Goran parties and the father of Diyarbakır bombing victim Ramazan Yıldız were among the notable guests to greet the crowd.

Diyarbakır province, which will be sending 10 HDP representatives and just one AKP representative to Turkey's Parliament, proved to be one of the AKP's major burying grounds at the polls. In one district, the province's district of Lice, which has a long history of resistance, an astonishing 97% of voters went HDP.

"Since the beginning of the elections campaign, they wanted to stop us with bombs. They haven't invented a bomb yet that can bring the people of Amed to its knees," said Diyarbakır MP İdris Baluken, taking to the stage yesterday afternoon before the massive crowd. İdris, a member of the delegation meeting with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, said he will be bringing the exciting news to the PKK leader soon.

Diyarbakır MP Feleknas Uca also recalled the victims of the bombing massacre just a few days before. Calling on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, she said, "Now there's no pass for you in Amed," she said.

The crowd danced into the late hours.

(ekip/zd/dc/cm)