ISTANBUL
\nTurkey on Monday sacked three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeast on alleged terrorism charges, despite Ankara\u2019s efforts to seek a rapprochement with the Kurdish community. In a sweep, the mayors of the southeastern cities of Mardin and Batman as well as Halfeti — a district in the Sanliurfa province — were removed from their positions and replaced with trustees, the interior ministry said.
\nAll three belong to DEM, the main pro-Kurdish party, and were elected in March\u2019s local elections when opposition candidates won in numerous towns and cities, including Istanbul. Ahmet Turk, 82, was Mardin\u2019s mayor, while Gulistan Sonuk was serving in Batman and Mehmet Karayilan in Halfeti.
\nIn a statement, the ministry outlined a string of allegations against them, from membership in an armed group to disseminating propaganda for the banned Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK). Since 1984, the PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has killed thousand and is blacklisted as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.
\nKurds make up around 20 percent of Turkey\u2019s overall population. DEM swifty denounced the mayors\u2019 removal as \u201ca major attack on the Kurdish people\u2019s right to vote and be elected.\u201d \u201cThe government has adopted the habit of snatching what it couldn\u2019t win through elections through using the judiciary, the police and the trustee system,\u201d it said in a statement on X.
\nTurk, a prominent Kurdish politician who was dismissed twice before, was in May sentenced to 10 years prison on charges of PKK membership for his alleged involvement in a series of deadly 2014 protests. At the time, the HDP party — now DEM — called for protests over Ankara\u2019s failure to send in troops to protect Kobane, a Kurdish city in northeastern Syria which was being overrun by the Islamic State (IS) group militants.
\nWriting on X, Turk promised not to give up. \u201cWe will not step back from the fight for democracy, peace and freedom. We will not allow usurpation of the people\u2019s will!\u201dTurk\u2019s replacement, the Mardin governor, banned protests in the city for 10 days. – \u2018Political coup\u2019 -Their dismissal comes days after another mayor from the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) party was arrested for alleged PKK ties in an Istanbul district and replaced by a trustee.
\nAhmet Ozer, 64, mayor of Esenyurt district, was arrested on Wednesday. Both the CHP and DEM slammed his arrest, denouncing it as politically motivated.
\nThe wave of dismissals came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed full support for efforts to reach out to Turkey\u2019s Kurds, describing it as a \u201cwindow of opportunity\u201d.
\nOver the years, the Turkish government has removed dozens of elected Kurdish mayors in the southeast and replaced them with its own trustees. Six months ago, the election authority removed DEM\u2019s elected mayor in the eastern city of Van and replaced him with the losing candidate from Erdogan\u2019s AKP party, sparking furious protests. As a result of the backlash, the winning candidate was later reinstated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISTANBUL Turkey on Monday sacked three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeast on alleged terrorism charges, despite Ankara\u2019s efforts to seek a rapprochement with the Kurdish community. In a sweep, the mayors of the southeastern cities of Mardin and Batman as well as Halfeti — a district in the Sanliurfa province — were removed from their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-441570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n