A news release from Human Rights Watch denounced Ankara’s “smearing” of the three mayors, who were arrested for what the interior ministry called “contact with terrorist organizations.”
“Smearing the mayors by alleging vague links with terrorism to deprive the Kurdish population of their chosen representatives endangers everyone in Turkey who is committed to democratic elections, human rights, and the rule of law,” Hugh Williamson, Director of Human Rights Watch in Europe and Central Asia said in an HRW article published Tuesday.
“The moves violate the right to political participation, the right to free elections, and the right to freedom of expression under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights,” it said.
The Turkish Interior Ministry said on Monday that it removed the mayors of three largest Kurdish metropolises of Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin for their alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and replaced them with the governors of these provinces.
"Mayors who are in contact with terrorist organizations and there is evidence they support terrorist organizations have been removed from office,” the ministry said in a statement.
The mayors - from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) - were elected in the latest local election on March 31. In that election, Diyarbakir Mayor Adnan Mızraklı received 63 percent of the vote, Mardin Mayor Ahmet Turk received 56 percent, and Van Mayor Bedia Ozgokce received 54 percent.
Some 418 people from the party were detained in a wave of arrests across 29 provinces on Monday.
The European Union (EU) also condemned Monday’s crackdown on the pro-Kurdish party, calling for “the urgent resumption of a credible political process to achieve a peaceful and sustainable solution.”
“Dismissals and detentions of local politicians and appointment of trustees […] seriously risk damaging local democracy,” read a statement from the EU on Monday.
“While the Turkish government has a legitimate right to fight terrorism, it is also responsible for ensuring this is done in accordance with the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in its Constitution and Turkey’s international commitments and not for political reasons applying broad anti-terror or criminal legislation,” it added.
Protests met with violence
The crackdown on the HDP was swiftly followed by a wave of protests, attended by party members, supporters and lawmakers, in the affected provinces.
The initially peaceful protests soon turned violent.
Footage posted on Twitter on Tuesday by the HDP shows police officers kettling MPs and other protestors outside the party’s Diyarbakir Provincial Headquarters.
Protestors appear to be trampled by police officers forcing themselves in on the group using shields and striking them with batons.
Stop this attempt at murder!
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) August 20, 2019
The attack on our MPs in front of our Diyarbakır Provincial Headquarters is a clear attempt at murder. Both those who ordered the attack and those who are carrying it out are committing a crime. Bring an immediate end to this vandalism and barbarity! https://t.co/fNJM9VW5wq
“Both those who ordered the attack and those who are carrying it out are committing a crime. Bring an immediate end to this vandalism and barbarity!” read the video’s accompanying tweet.
Footage captured by Rudaw in Diyarbakir shows security forces hosing down protestors with water cannons on Monday.
“Break the silence”
The crackdown on the HDP has also been condemned by a number of parties and institutions inside Turkey, including the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
"A coup is not only carried out by tanks, bombs and rifles," said Sezgin Tanrikulu, a CHP lawmaker in Istanbul, on Twitter.
"The removal of the elected mayors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van metropolises...is a violation of law and it is also a blow to people’s political choice."
CHP spokesperson Faik Oztrak denounced the “political and illegal” crackdown at a press conference in Ankara.
"Those elected through polling boxes should go only through polling boxes."
However, in a press conference at the HDP’s Istanbul office on Tuesday, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan called on the opposition parties in parliament to “break the silence” on governmental repression.
“If we do not pass this democracy exam, Turkey’s future will not promise us anything. Dark days will await us. Today, I am especially calling on [CHP leader] Kemal Kilicdarolu and the parliament blocs - especially the CHP – but also political parties outside the parliament, pro-democracy organizations, and defenders of democracy [to unite] to pass this exam,” Buldan said.
“What was done to us today could be done to you tomorrow,” she warned.
This is the second time that the Turkish government has replaced HDP mayors with pro-government administrators or trustees.
Following the failed coup attempt on Erdogan in the summer of 2016, the Turkish government clamped down on opposition movements of all stripes. It replaced tens of HDP party mayors with trustees and jailed thousands of members – including both HDP co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.
