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Turkey
Municipal office of Siirt province, southeastern Turkey on May 15, 2020. Photo: Ihlas News Agency
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish authorities removed from office and detained four mayors belonging to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) early on Friday for their alleged relations with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in yet another wave of party member dismissal from governance.
Turkey's interior ministry removed and detained Yasar Akkus mayor of Igdir, Berivan Helen Isik mayor of Siirt, Ramazan Sarsilmaz mayor of Baykan and Baran Akgul mayor of Kurtalan for terror-related allegations, reported the pro-government Milliyet news outlet.
The detentions were also reported by the state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA), which added that Isik’s assistant Peymandara Turhan had also been detained.
Milliyet added that the governor of Siirt has already assigned pro-goverment trustees to Baykan and Kurtalan municipalities.
The HDP condemned Friday’s raids, claiming the decision came from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rather than the courts.
“Our Igdir, Siirt, Kurtalan and Baykan municipalities have been seized by the AKP government this morning. The Erdogan regime once again showed its hostility to the will of Kurdish people. We will not bow down to this regime's undemocratic practices,” the HDP said on Twitter.
The leftist party is accused by Ankara of being the political wing of the PKK, which has been involved in a decades-long conflict with the Turkish state in pursuit of cultural and political rights for Kurds in the country. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
The HDP has denied organic links to the Kurdish rebels. However, unlike other parties and the government, it does not view the PKK as a terrorist organization and has expressed its respect for the ideology of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Some of the dismissed HDP mayors have been accused of using their municipality budgets to assist the group, claims all of them have denied.
HDP mayor count dwindles
The HDP gained 65 of over a thousand municipalities in the March 2019 local elections, but six mayor-elects were prohibiting from taking up office on the grounds that they had previously been dismissed by the government.
The first government crackdown on inaugurated mayors occurred in mid-August, when the mayors of three Kurdish major cities were dismissed.
Raids in 13 provinces swiftly followed, leading to the dismissal of dozens of mayors for terror-related allegations. Most netted by the raids have been detained.
According to official party data sent to Rudaw English, 44 of the 59 HDP mayors have now been dismissed - leaving only 15 of its mayors in office. An HDP deputy, who did not want to be named, told Rudaw English that they expect their mayor in Mus town to soon be removed from their position, according to reports the party has received from its members.
The clampdown has been criticized by international organisations such as the Human Rights Watch and European Parliament.
The move is an affront to the rights of citizens who cast their vote for the mayors, HRW said in February.
“The Turkish authorities’ removal and arrest of democratically elected Kurdish mayors across southeastern Turkey violates voters’ rights,'' read a report by the organization, adding that Ankara has “intensified its attacks” against the HDP in the country.
“Removing, detaining, and putting on trial local Kurdish politicians as armed militants with no compelling evidence of criminal activity seems to be the Turkish government’s preferred way to wipe out political opposition,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“These cases are not linked to any legitimate counterterrorism effort but trample the rights of the mayors and the 1.8 million voters who elected them.”
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