DIYARBAKIR: Exhausted by crackdowns in Turkiye鈥檚 Kurdish heartland, Ali is backing the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections next Sunday 鈥� though his faith in the presidential hopeful is not great.

鈥淚t鈥檚 time for a change,鈥� the 50-year-old said in Diyarbakir, the Kurds鈥� unofficial capital in southeast Turkiye.

鈥淔or anyone watching TV in Turkiye, Kurds are terrorists,鈥� said Ali, who declined to give his full name for fear of retribution.

鈥淏ut I would be lying if I said I fully trust the opposition candidate,鈥� he added, referring to Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the secular CHP party.

Representing roughly a fifth of Turkiye鈥檚 85 million people, Kurds have suffered repression throughout the course of the post-Ottoman republic, which was created by CHP founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

Turkiye officially denied the existence of such an ethnicity, depriving Kurds of cultural and education rights.

Many Kurds embraced Erdogan鈥檚 AKP when it ended decades of secular rule in 2002, seeing it as more inclusive and committed to changes.

Erdogan tried to broker a deal to end a bloody Kurdish fight for an independent state, seeking to etch his place in history as the one who finally settled one of Turkiye鈥檚 most painful problems.

The collapse of the talks in 2015 and a failed coup attempt the following year prompted Erdogan to resume military operations in Kurdish regions, pushing him closer to Turkiye鈥檚 nationalists.

After holding out for much of the campaign, the pro-Kurdish HDP party has officially backed Kilicdaroglu, an endorsement that might just tip the close vote.

The HDP鈥檚 support 鈥渋s a major boost鈥� to Kilicdaroglu, said Hamish Kinnear, a senior analyst at the Verisk Maplecroft risk consultancy.

Mehmet Emin Yilmaz, who wears a traditional Kurdish scarf, says he is ready to vote for whomever the HDP points to.

鈥淚 am Kurdish. The HDP defends my rights. If the police unjustly detains me today, the HDP will take care of me,鈥� the 60-year-old said.

But while the election is one of Turkiye鈥檚 most important in its modern era, deciding the future of its longest-serving leader, there is little excitement on the streets of Diyarbakir.

鈥淭he people are intimidated, there are cameras everywhere. If more than two people gather, the plainclothes police arrive,鈥� said Erdem Unal, the CHP chief in Diyarbakir鈥檚 historic Sur district.

鈥淓rdogan left Kurds with two options: mosque or prison,鈥� he said.

鈥淒iyarbakir has turned into an open-air prison,鈥� he said.

Erdogan鈥檚 alliance with the Huda-Par (Free Cause Party) has opened additional wounds.

Huda-Par has links to the Kurdish Hezbollah movement, which is distinct from the Lebanese group of the same name.

Comprising Sunni radicals, the Kurdish Hezbollah was implicated in the extrajudicial killings of Kurdish and women鈥檚 rights activists in the 1990s.

Some analysts viewed the Kurdish Hezbollah as a regime tool for fighting the Kurdish insurgency led by the leftist PKK.

Eyup Burc, founder of the pro-Kurdish IMC TV channel that has since been shut down, said Erdogan鈥檚 embrace of Huda-Par meant he was trying to hang on to the most conservative elements of the Kurdish vote.

鈥淪urveys show around 15 percent support for Erdogan in Diyarbakir, and it鈥檚 melting further,鈥� Burc said.

Kilicdaroglu鈥檚 leftist CHP is almost invisible in Diyarbakir.

But the 74-year-old former civil servant appears to attract local sympathies because of his openly Alevi faith 鈥� and less emphasised Kurdish identity.

Most Kurds call Kilicdaroglu 鈥淧iro鈥� from 鈥減ir,鈥� a Kurdish word for grandfather that also describes an Alevi religious leader.

But many Kurds have long-standing reservations about Kilicdaroglu and his six-party opposition alliance.

It backed Erdogan鈥檚 military incursions into Syria, which hit Kurdish areas controlled by a sister party of the PKK.

The HDP鈥檚 support for Kilicdaroglu follows the arrest of more than 100 Kurdish activists, journalists and lawyers in what the government billed an 鈥渁nti-terror鈥� operation.

The roundups were aimed at 鈥渟ending a message to Turkiye鈥檚 (mostly Sunni) west,鈥� said Nahit Eren, who heads the Diyarbakir bar association.

Abbas Sahin, whose Green Left Party will represent pro-Kurdish candidates in the parliamentary portion of the ballot because of a threatened shutdown of the HDP, vowed that Erdogan would be consigned 鈥渢o the dustbin of history.鈥�

But Gulistan Atasoy Tekdemir, the HDP co-chair in Diyarbakir, said Kurds expected 鈥渃ourage鈥� from the opposition candidate, insisting that their support should not be taken for granted.