Turkey suspends pro-Kurdish Hakkari co-mayor

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s interior ministry on Monday announced that Mehmet Siddik Akis, the recently elected co-mayor of the Kurdish province of Hakkari (Colemerg), has been suspended from his duties, citing alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish security forces stormed Hakkari’s town hall on Monday morning, and took Akis into custody, according to a statement from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). The forces had reportedly surrounded the building since Sunday evening.

The statement from the Turkish ministry accused Akis of holding “high-level” positions within the PKK and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).

It claimed that the co-mayor had “carried out so-called interrogations and collected taxes on behalf of the organization, organized actions such as illegal marches and terrorist funerals and put pressure on the public and tradesmen to participate in the actions, and threatened the tradesmen who opposed the closing of their shutters on behalf of the PKK terrorist organization.”

He was suspended from his duties “as a temporary measure” and Hakkari Governor Ali Celik has been appointed as acting mayor, the statement added.

Dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors in Turkey have been stripped of their offices over the years and replaced with state-linked trustees (administrators) due to their alleged links with Kurdish rebels.

“We reject this trustee approach. Our people showed through democratic means on March 31 that they do not recognize this trustee approach. This coupist and trusteeist mentality is a threat not only to Hakkari but also to the will of the entire Turkish people,” said DEM Party in a post on X.

Akis received the highest number of votes during March 31’s municipal mayoral elections in Hakkari, obtaining around 49 percent of the votes. He shared the mayoral position with fellow DEM Party member Viyan Tekce.

DEM Party scored several significant victories in the March election. It took Diyarbakir, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, Hakkari, Van, and Igdir provinces, which its sister party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), won in 2019 only to have their mayors removed because of alleged links with Kurdish rebels and replaced by state-appointed administrators.

The pro-Kurdish party also won Tunceli from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and took Agri and Mus from the AKP.