The removed Kurdish mayor of Mardin, Ahmet Turk, August 29, 2019. Photo: AFP
ISTANBUL,— Three pro-Kurdish mayors sacked by the Turkish government this month over alleged links to militants lambasted on Thursday a “political putsch” they vowed to challenge in court.
The mayors of the eastern Kurdish cities — all members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) elected in March — were removed on August 19 over alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The sacking of the Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van mayors — Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli, Ahmet Turk and Bedia Ozgokce Ertan respectively — came after they had won strong majorities.
Since their removal, there have been protests in the Kurdish region, often blocked by police using heavy force including water cannon.
“We were deprived of the opportunity to serve the people by the political putsch on August 19,” said Turk, the deposed Mardin mayor and a key figure in the Kurdish movement.
“It’s a political decision aimed at preventing the Kurdish people’s struggle for democracy, to intimidate the people and to block our efforts to bring about change in Turkey,” he added.
Ertan said the HDP was going to “exhaust all legal channels” to challenge the sackings.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week defended the decision accusing the mayors of serving “terrorists instead of the people”.
The interior ministry said there had been complaints against the three of providing financial support to the PKK.
The PKK is banned as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.
Turk said the allegations were “unfounded”.
The Ankara-appointed governors of each province will be in charge of the three municipalities.
Erdogan often accuses the HDP of having links to the PKK, but the Kurdish party says it is being targeted because of its strong opposition to the president.
Dozens of officials and elected HDP MPs were arrested during a crackdown after a failed 2016 coup bid.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
Read more about Turkey’s policy against Kurds
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