(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The clashes were the latest in a string of incidents in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.
Approximately 1,000 Turkish nationalists stormed the rally where about 2,000 HDP supporters gathered to hear Selahattin DemirtaÅŸ, a co-party leader, speak.
His appearance is a bold statement in a region where the HDP is far from popular, as the party tries to win votes from outside its southeastern Kurdish constituency.
The governor's office for Bingöl launched an investigation into the shooting.
The unrest erupted a day after unidentified men opened fire on a HDP campaign bus in Kurdish-majority eastern Bingöl province, killing the driver.
The HDP has been exposed to over fifty attacks across the country over the course of a month in the lead up to the June 7 elections, according to the Dicle News Agency.
'Not overshadowed' by ErdoÄŸan
The leaders of the three primary opposition parties currently represented in parliament received their daily dose of criticism from President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan in the latest pre-election "meeting with the people" in Sivas.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu denies that his first election campaign as AKP leader and premier are overshadowed by ErdoÄŸan's strong presence.
He addressed the concern in Hurriyet Daily News saying, "I do whatever my position requires. He [ErdoÄŸan] carries out such programmes within that framework. It has no dimension that affects our campaign."
Erdoğan blasted the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the HDP in Sivas on June 4, arguing that the "slander and lies" of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the CHP, against him crossed the limits of freedom of expression.
AKP losing the Kurds
Following the elections on Sunday the AKP could see their majority in parliament shrink for the first time since seizing power in 2002, particularly if the pro-Kurdish HDP can cross the 10 percent threshold needed to gain representation.
Tribes, mostly consisting of those of Kurdish, Turkmen, and Arab origin and concentrated in Turkey's southeast, were a powerful force in past elections, voting in blocs by the tens of thousands, often in favor of the AKP.
Sunday's vote may see some rally behind the pro-Kurdish opposition party and potentially cost the AKP and President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan the majority they need to increase the power of the presidency and force the first coalition government since 2002.
So far ErdoÄŸan has courted the Kurds, one-fifth of Turkey's population, doing more than any previous leader to end a three-decade war between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants and extend Kurdish rights. The AKP has typically attracted at least half of the Kurdish vote.
The civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year, has complicated Turkey's relationship with its Kurdish population.
Dozens were killed last October in protests in Suruç, about 130 km (80 miles) south of Adıyaman, triggered by Kurdish anger at Turkey's perceived inaction as ISIS militants besieged the Kurdish town of Kobani just across the Turkish-Syrian border.
"People saw the true face of ErdoÄŸan when he said Kobani was about to fall [to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]," Recep Kalkan, 56, told Today's Zaman.
"Those comments were poisonous for us all," he said.
Gulizar Uçar, a housewife in the village of Kara, just outside of Suruç, also commented to Today's Zaman that she voted for Erdoğan, but vows never to support him or the AKP again.
"Now he no longer acknowledges us," she said.
The stakes for Turkey's future have never been higher.
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