Following protest by BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) co-chair Gultan Kýþanak AKP (Justice and Development party) has launched an investigation into Rize Mayor Halil Bakýrcý’s remarks. The mayor had suggested polygamous marriages with Kurdish women could help “solve” the Kurdish issue as opposition deputies slam the statement and call for his dismissal.

“Second wives are widespread in the Southeast. It is in our culture,” Bakýrcý, who was elected from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said Tuesday evening. He added that problems could be solved by “increasing marriages and kinship with this region, with the encouragement of the state.”

Following reactions from BDP and some in the political circle, the mayor of the Black Sea municipality apologized late Wednesday for his statements, saying the media had cut and recombined his words in a skewed way, causing misunderstanding.

Gültan Kýþanak had said that the statement was “racist, separatist and insulting” and called on the AKP to expel Bakýrcý from the party. “We will take the necessary precautions if they don’t,” Kiþanak said.

The Association for Educating and Supporting Women Candidates, or Ka-Der, also criticized the Rize mayor’s remarks in a written statement Thursday, calling on the Interior Ministry and State Minister Aliye Kavaf, who is responsible for women’s and family affairs, to take the necessary steps in response to Bakýrcý’s discriminatory and primitive comments that humiliate women.

Some 150 women marched in Dersim to protest Bakýrcý as well as incidents of abuse and rape. Dersim Mayor Edibe Þahin, a member of the BDP, attended the protest.