Date published: 04/11/2024 – 13:12

2 minutes

The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the mayors of Mardin, Batman and Şanlıurfa’s Halfeti district were removed from their posts in a major operation and replaced by trustees.

All three belong to the main pro-Kurdish party, DEM, and were elected in local elections in March, where opposition candidates won victories in several towns and cities, including Istanbul.

While 82-year-old Ahmet Türk was the mayor of Mardin, Gülistan Sonuk was working in Batman and Mehmet Karayılan was working in Halfeti.

In its statement, the ministry listed a number of allegations against them, from membership of an armed group to spreading propaganda of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, in which more than 40,000 people have died.

It has been blacklisted as a “terrorist” group by Türkiye and its Western allies.

Kurds make up approximately 20 percent of Turkey’s total population.

DEM condemned the dismissal of the mayors, calling it “a major attack on the Kurdish people’s right to vote and be elected.”

In its statement, DEM said, “The government has adopted the habit of using the judiciary, police and trustee system to achieve what it cannot achieve through elections.” he said.

Prominent Kurdish politician Turk, who has been dismissed twice before, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May for alleged PKK membership for participating in a series of protests in 2014.

He remained in office pending the outcome of the appeal.

At the time, the HDP party (now DEM) called for protests after Ankara did not send troops to protect the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani in northeastern Syria, which was occupied by militants of the Islamic State (IS) group.

‘No step back’

Writing on X, the Turk promised not to give up.

“We will not step back from the struggle for democracy, peace and freedom. We will not allow the will of the people to be usurped!”

Mardin Governorship banned demonstrations in the city for 10 days.

“The government has lost control,” Ekrem İmamoğlu, the powerful opposition mayor of Istanbul, wrote on X.

“The right to vote belongs only to the voter and is inalienable,” he said.

İmamoğlu, one of the important figures of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a possible candidate in the 2028 presidential elections, said that he would call the Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB) for an emergency meeting.

The latest dismissals come just days after another CHP mayor was arrested in Istanbul for alleged links to the PKK and replaced by a trustee.

Esenyurt Mayor 64-year-old Ahmet Özer was arrested on Wednesday.

Both CHP and DEM condemned his arrest as politically motivated, while DEM described it as a “political coup”.

The wave of layoffs came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his full support for efforts to reach Kurds in Turkey and described it as a “window of opportunity”.

But he warned that the call was not directed at “terror barons” in Iraq and Syria.

Over the years, the Turkish government has dismissed dozens of elected Kurdish mayors in the southeast and replaced them with its own trustees.

Six months ago, the electoral authority dismissed the DEM-elected mayor in the eastern province of Van and replaced him with the losing candidate of Erdogan’s AKP party, sparking angry protests.

As a result of the reactions, the winning candidate was later reinstated.

© 2024 AFP