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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish court in Hakkari (Colemerg) province on Wednesday sentenced a recently-ousted Kurdish mayor to nearly 20 years in jail for his alleged links with Kurdish rebels, around two months after the politician won in the local elections.
Mehmet Siddik Akis, who became the mayor of Hakkari after winning the March 31 municipal polls on the ticket of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), was detained by the Turkish security forces late Sunday for his alleged affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He was removed from his position, being replaced with state-linked trustee (administrative).
In his first trial on Wednesday, a court in Hakkari sentenced him to 19 years and six months imprisonment for “leading an armed terrorist organisation.” The trial was based on a lawsuit against him and several other people who are accused of carrying out violent activities on behalf of the PKK between 2009 and 2013, reported the state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA).
Akis told the jury that the case against him was politically-motivated, according to AA.
The DEM Party slammed the ruling, calling the case against him “a technically collapsed” one which was based on “false evidence.” It accused the judiciary of being instructed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Wednesday endorsed the court ruling against the Kurdish mayor, claiming that "the judiciary made its decisions accordingly."
DEM Party supporters have staged several protests in several cities since Monday. Turkey’s opposition parties have also condemned the dismissal of the mayor from his position.
A Turkish court on Wednesday handed down a lengthy jail term for a Kurdish mayor.
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) June 5, 2024
Protesting against the ruling, a Kurdish mother said Kurds will not accept this.
"We have endured this for 100 years and we will continue to do that."
READ MORE: https://t.co/D1arBjnydk pic.twitter.com/3vzQKm6RfE
Despite a ten-day ban to hold protests, DEM Party supporters took to the streets of Hakkari on Wednesday, protesting the court ruling.
“They are oppressing us. They arrested our mayor and assigned a trustee. They are oppressing us. What kind of justice is this? We will not accept this. We are Kurds. We are defending our cause. We will not accept this. We have endured this for 100 years and we will continue to do that. We will not give up our cause,” a Kurdish mother, who took part in the protests, said.
Turkish army has reportedly deployed a large number of soldiers to Hakkari to prevent demonstrations.
The removal of Kurdish mayors and their replacement with trustees is not something new in Turkey. Dozens of Kurdish mayors, affiliated with other pro-Kurdish parties, have been dismissed and replaced with trusteed for terror-related charges since 2016, with many of them being sentenced to jail.Hakkari’ye askeri konvoy sevkiyatı yapılıyor. pic.twitter.com/cw15U55p3g
— Ruşen Takva (@RusenTakva) June 5, 2024
Thousands of Kurdish politicians and supporters of pro-Kurdish parties, mainly the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which has been rebranded as DEM Party, have been jailed in the last decade for PKK-linked charges. A large number of them remain behind bars.
Last month, a Turkish court concluded a ten-year-old case against dozens of Kurdish politicians for their alleged involvement in deadly protests in 2014, including Selahattin Demirtas, former co-chair of the HDP, who has been jailed since 2016. Demirtas was handed 42 years imprisonment in what is known as the Kobane case. The case was named after the Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria which came under the Islamic State (ISIS) attack in 2014. The demonstrations were in solidarity with Kobane.
Ahmed Turk, who became the mayor of Mardin in the March 31 elections, was sentenced to ten years in the case. Months after winning the same position in 2019 local polls, Turk was removed from his position and replaced by a trustee but the fate of his current position remains unclear.
Washington reacted to the lengthy jail terms against the Kurdish politicians.
“We are concerned and following these cases closely. The United States reiterates its full support for freedom of expression in Turkiye, and opposes actions intended to encroach on the right of free speech,” a spokesperson for the US state department told Rudaw English on May 20.
Days after the last local elections, Abdullah Zeydan, the elected mayor of the Kurdish city of Van, had his win in the vote revoked by a court acting on a last-minute request by the justice ministry, and the Van branch of the election board handed the win to Abdulahat Arvas, candidate of the AKP/
Following widespread protests across the Kurdish provinces, the decision was overturned, and Zeydan received his mandate to take up his role as the mayor of Van.
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