Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid visits to Diyarbakir and Batman cities to participate in the rallies for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), reported Haber7 website of Turkey.

These visits, however, were marred by scandal, as the Kurdish mayors of these two cities announced that they will not welcome Erdogan due to his recent anti-Kurdish statements.

“Everyone is afraid of Erdogan, but we are not afraid,” they stated.

This announcement by these Kurdish mayors extremely infuriated the Turkish president. In this context, Erdogan stated that it was the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that had actually instructed these Kurdish mayors not to welcome him.