HDP mayor of a key Kurdish town in southeast Turkey arrested
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -Turkish authorities arrested on Monday a pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) mayor for the central district of Sur in Diyarbakir (Amed) province, southeast Turkey for terror-related charges after temporarily suspending her for three days.
Feyme Buluttekin assumed her role in March 2019 but was removed from her position and detained on Friday by the interior ministry for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She was officially arrested on Monday, according to Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA).
Founded in 2012, the HDP is accused by Ankara of being the political wing of the PKK - a Kurdish armed group, which has struggled against Turkey for decades for the cultural and political rights of Kurds in Turkey. Turkey sees the group as a terrorist organization.
Buluttekin is accused of being a member of and propagating the PKK, insulting the Turkish state and nation as well as attending the funeral of a PKK fighter, AA reported, citing security sources.
The HDP has described her detention as “anti-democratic.”
“Anti-democratic attacks on HDP municipalities continue. Last night, Filiz Buluttekin, elected as co-mayor of Sur in March with 60% of the vote, was arrested in a raid on her home. Police have also blockaded the Sur municipality,” it said in a tweet.
So far, out of 65 HDP mayors, over 30 have been removed from office since local elections in March, and several of them have been arrested. Additionally, 14 HDP candidates who won election had not been given official certification of their win by the electoral commission, according to a November report by the Diyarbakir office of the Human Rights Association (IHD).
The removed HDP officials are usually replaced with pro-government administrators or their deputies - who are mostly from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The HDP mediated between Turkey and the PKK before 2013 which resulted in the birth of a ceasefire between both sides, lasting two and a half years. However, armed clashes resumed in July 2015 and many Kurdish-populated areas, including the Sur district, were partially destroyed.
Following a failed coup attempt in July 2016, blamed on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s former ally Fethullah Gulen, Turkish security forces cracked down on dissidents, including the HDP, despite the party’s condemnation of the putsch.
Both the HDP co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, and several other HDP officials and members were detained in November 2016 on terror-related charges. Most of them still remain in jail.
A report by the HDP, covering the Turkish government’s crackdown between March and November, indicates that 24 mayors have been removed and 13 detained during this period.
The party has coined the replacements as a “trustee regime.”
“[W]e codify the trustees' appointments as a continuation of the denial policy against the Kurds for hundreds of years, and we call this period the name ‘The Trustee Regime’. This regime is built on evil and seizure; based on memocide and culturocide; it is a misogynist and a regime that takes all kinds of unearned income, corruption and irregularities as an example,” read the 31-page report.