Hosyar Sariyildiz and Nuriye Aslan, district co-mayors of Akdeniz in Mersin province, as well as several members of the municipality - including Ozgur Caglar, Hikmet Bakirhan and Neslihan Oruc - were detained by the security forces on Friday.
The interior ministry announced on Monday that Sariyildiz has been sacked from his position and replaced by a state-affiliated trustee (administrator) after being charged by the court for allegedly “making propaganda” for the PKK, “being a member” of the group, and other charges related to the PKK.
The ministry said Nuriye, who is also a member of the local municipal council, Caglar, Bakirhan and Oruc, were also dismissed “as a temporary measure” after they were officially arrested by the court.
They are all affiliated with the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which uses a co-chairship system aimed at gender equality. Sariyildiz won the last local elections but the party appointed Nuriye as his co-mayor.
Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of the DEM Party, slammed the government for the move, deeming it “political genocide.”
“The appointment of a trustee to our Akdeniz municipality is an open blow to democracy. It is a political assassination against the hope of people living together. We reject it,” he added.
The crackdown comes amid renewed efforts aimed at brokering a ceasefire between the state and the PKK to end a conflict between them that has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people since it began in the eighties.
A delegation from the DEM Party was recently granted rare access to Imrali prison to meet jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The delegates have held a series of talks with the leaders of the Turkish political parties, parliament speaker and other influential jailed Kurdish politicians since then, carrying Ocalan’s message.
“While internal peace is being discussed on the one hand, the usurpation of the will of the people on the other is an eclipse of reason,” Bakirhan said, calling for an end to the clampdowns on his party.
“We reiterate our promise that we will increase our democratic struggle against the tyranny of trustees, coups against democracy and hostility towards Kurds. The oppressors and tyrants will lose, the people will win!” he noted.
DEM Party’s predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), played a key role in negotiating peace talks a decade ago. The short-lived ceasefire collapsed in 2015 and was followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s southwestern Kurdish areas.
