He was basically booted for his Bayram message posters which I saw in Fethiye and thought they were awesome and well meant. As I understand it, Erdogan wants to return powers to the ethnic groups that made up the new country of Turkey (such as Kurds but many others) and Behçet Bey's message was along the lines of ONE Country, ONE language, ONE Flag, ONE Turkey (terrible version but I can't quite remember but you get the idea).
I thought it was correct, inspirational, and in these current political climate, very brave.
He's not everyone's cup of tea but the development of Fethiye under his terms in office is undeniably positive. I would hope he is popular enough to win enough support locally without his old party, and I believe he is.