The removed Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakir (Amed) Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli speaks to the foreign press on August 29, 2019, in Istanbul, August 29, 2019. Photo: AFP
DIYARBAKIR-AMED, Turkey Kurdistan,— A Turkish court on Monday sentenced the ex-mayor of a major Kurdish city to more than nine years in prison after convicting him of “membership in an armed terror group.”
Turkish authorities removed 31 Kurdish mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) last year over alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), just months after they won local elections in March.
Critics say the suspensions were aimed at removing political opposition to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party in the country’s southeast after poor election results.
Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli was mayor of Diyarbakir until he was suspended in August 2019 along with the mayors of Mardin and Van.
All were replaced by government-appointed trustees.
On Monday, the court in Diyarbakir convicted Mizrakli, who refused to attend the hearing, “of membership in an armed terror group,” the Anadolu state news agency reported.
Prosecutors said he had attended the funerals of PKK militants and meetings that were used for the group’s propaganda.
Mizrakli was sentenced to nine years, four months and 15 days in prison, Anadolu said.
In a statement carried by his party HDP, Mizrakli said the verdict was politically motivated.
“This is a verdict … which has become a political tool,” he said. “I do not respect it.”
Human Rights Watch said in February 2020 that Turkish authorities’ removal and arrest of democratically elected Kurdish mayors across Turkish Kurdistan, southeastern Turkey, violates voters’ rights.
The government has repeatedly claimed the HDP has links to the PKK, which has fought a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
The HDP says it has no official connection to the PKK but has tried to broker peace talks between the insurgents and government.
On its Twitter account, the HDP said Mizrakli was convicted on “false ‘terror’ charges.”
“Though he won office with a landslide 63% of the vote, he was illegally removed in August, like dozens of other HDP mayors have been,” the party commented.
One of Turkey’s best known politicians, Selahattin Demirtas has been in jail for more than three years on several charges including alleged links to PKK. He could be sentenced to 142 years in jail if found guilty in the main case.
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.
The PKK is considered to be a terror group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. In 2008 EU court ruling overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union’s terror list. The United States has designated the PKK a terrorist organization since 1997.
However, Russia, Switzerland, India, China and the United Nations do not list the PKK as a terrorist organization.
In January 2020, The Court of Cassation of Belgium ratified the lower court’s judgement and ruled that Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK is not a terrorist organization.
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