Sofya Alagas, the Siirt co-mayor from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) was sentenced to six years and three months in prison on Tuesday for membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terrorist organization in Ankara, according to the interior ministry statement.
The ministry appointed Kemal Kizilkaya from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as acting mayor.
“The will of the people of Siirt was usurped,” Alagas said on X following the decision.
DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan slammed the decision as “political deception.”
“Those who do not respect the will of the people are doing the greatest harm to this country. Appointing trustees to municipalities and ignoring the will of the Kurdish people is a colonial habit,” Bakirhan said on X.
“Trying to govern the Kurdish people with colonial methods in the 21st century is a futile effort,” he added.
Since 2016, dozens of Kurdish mayors have been dismissed and replaced with government-appointed trustees and many of them have been sentenced to jail on terror-related charges, often accused of association with the PKK.
Turkey is on the possible brink of new peace talks to end four decades of conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state.
The Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) condemned the verdict as an “attack on the Kurdish will.”
“Journalism is not terrorism, and her unjust conviction must be overturned. We call on the international community, especially the EU and the United States, to urgently denounce this ruling and condemn the persecution of Kurdish journalists by Turkish authorities,” the coalition said on X.
The removal of Kurdish mayors and their replacement with trustees is not new. Dozens of Kurdish mayors affiliated with other pro-Kurdish parties have been dismissed and replaced with trustees following terror-related accusations since 2016. Many of them have been sentenced to jail. The DEM Party denies any links to the PKK and maintains it is merely pro-Kurdish.
Thousands of Kurdish politicians and supporters of pro-Kurdish parties, mainly DEM Party’s predecessor the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), have been jailed in the past decade for PKK-linked charges. A large number of them remain behind bars.
DEM Party scored several significant victories in the March elections. It took Diyarbakir, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, Hakkari, Van, and Igdir provinces, which its sister party, the HDP, won in 2019 only to have their mayors removed because of alleged links with Kurdish rebels and replaced by state-appointed administrators.
