Protests also erupted at four municipalities in Batman Province, where police deployed tear gas and water cannons, and in the Suruc district of Sanliurfa Province, the paper reported.
Advertisement
Erdogan said Turkey’s military operations against Islamic State in northern Syria, launched nearly three weeks ago, would continue. “Our government took this decision based on all of this evidence”.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, as well as by Ankara.
The crackdown on the Kurdish majority in the southeast of Turkey has intensified following a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“To me, it is a step that came late”.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told Anadolu agency that security forces had taken precautions to prevent violent attacks during the nine-day Eid al-Adha festival.
Being elected a mayor does not mean you can do anything you want.
Of the 28 mayors who were replaced, 24 are suspected of ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and four are thought to be linked to the movement led by USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the government says is responsible for the abortive coup that left more than 270 people dead.
“If the state is ready… we have a plan and this problem can be ended in six months”, Mehmet Ocalan, who visited his brother on Sunday, quoted the PKK leader as saying.
“They are carrying TNT (explosives)”.
The government has vowed to eliminate every last PKK “terrorist”. Violence tied to the PKK, which is fighting for more Kurdish autonomy in the region, has left more than 40,000 people dead since the 1980s.
In a statement, the U.S. embassy in Ankara expressed concerns over the resulting clashes in the southeast between protesters and police after the mayors were suspended.
“First of all, it wasn’t us who destroyed the process”. The government said in a statement that Turkey removed the mayors to stop local governments from aiding terrorism with public property and funds.
Advertisement
The U.S. Embassy, too, issued a “statement of concern”.
