In Türkiye, dismissal of three pro-Kurdish mayors accused of terrorism

Like many opponents, they are accused of terrorism by the government. Three mayors from the People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM, ex-HDP), Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, have been dismissed from their positions, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday, November 4.

The mayors of the large cities of Mardin and Batman, and that of the locality of Halfeti, all three located in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country, have been replaced by governors appointed by the state, the ministry said in a statement. a press release.

The mayor of Mardin, Ahmet Türk, a popular figure in the Kurdish movement, aged 82, had already been dismissed from office and imprisoned for several months during previous mandates, with the Turkish government accusing him of links with Workers' Party fighters. of Kurdistan (PKK), an armed group considered terrorist by Ankara and its Western allies, which has led a guerrilla war against the Turkish state since 1984.

” Never give up. We will not back down in the fight for democracy, peace and freedom. We will not allow the will of the people to be usurped. Let this be known! »wrote Monday morning on X Mr. Türk, prosecuted for “membership of an armed terrorist organization”. The DEM party called these dismissals “coup d’état”denouncing in a press release “a major attack on the right of the Kurdish people to vote and to be elected”.

Dismissals become rarer

Dozens of elected mayors in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast had been removed from office and replaced by government-appointed administrators starting in 2016. However, these dismissals had become rarer in recent years.

However, the DEM mayor of Hakkari, a city located in the far southeast of Turkey, was dismissed from his post in June before being sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison for “terrorism”. Scuffles had broken out in the city.

The former co-president of the HDP (now DEM), Selahattin Demirtas, incarcerated since 2016, was sentenced three weeks earlier to 42 years in prison, notably for undermining state unity.

Mr. Türk and the two other pro-Kurdish mayors were elected during the local elections in March, which ended in a large victory for the opposition to the detriment of the President's Justice and Development Party (AKP, Islamo-conservative). Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The opposition mobilizes

These dismissals come a few days after the arrest for alleged links with the PKK of Ahmet Özler, a district mayor of Istanbul from the Republican People's Party (CHP, social-democrat), the main Turkish opposition party. . The latter mobilized on Thursday to denounce the arrest and replacement of this elected official accused of terrorism, reproaching the authorities for “pick a fight” despite an outstretched hand to the PKK. The CHP and the DEM had met with their supporters to denounce “unfounded arrest” de M. Özler.

Elected on March 31, Ahmet Özer, a renowned academic and close to Ekrem Imamoglu, is accused of being “member of the armed terrorist organization PKK”according to the Ministry of the Interior, which confirmed the “temporary dismissal” of the councilor. The authorities suspended him from his functions and appointed a civil servant, deputy to the governor of Istanbul, as substitute mayor.

President Erdogan nevertheless affirmed on Wednesday that he wanted “reach out to the Kurdish brothers”. The head of state and his main ally, Devlet Bahçeli, have been hinting for two weeks at the possibility of an early release of the historic leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, detained on an island off the coast of Istanbul since 1999.

The PKK has meanwhile claimed responsibility for the October 23 attack near Ankara which left five dead and 22 injured, specifying however that it was a “long-planned action” and not linked to the recent declarations of the head of state and his far-right ally.