Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside local government buildings in Suruc on the Syrian border as new administrators took over, security sources said.
Advertisement
In a message to mark the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday on Sunday, Erdogan said that the PKK had been trying to step up its attacks since a failed coup attempt in July and that they had a clear aim of disrupting Turkey’s military operations in Syria.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote on Twitter, “Mayors and town councilors, who come to power through elections, must perform their duties according to the law”.
The HDP mayors were elected by majority vote in the local elections in the Kurdish-majority Southeast of Turkey.
The United States embassy in Ankara expressed concern over the government’s actions, saying in a statement “we note the importance of respect for judicial due process and individual rights, including the right of peaceful political expression, as enshrined in the Turkish Constitution”.
He said Turkey is now much stronger, determined and more dynamic than before the July 15 coup bid.
“We hope that any appointment of trustees will be temporary and that local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law”, it said. The interior ministry said 12 of the mayors suspended were already under arrest. Co-mayor Fatma Yildiz, who was replaced on Sunday morning, said the decision was “a blow against the will of the people”, Dogan reported.
The People’s Democratic Party called the mayoral substitutions a disregard of voters’ will and said they represented a violation of worldwide law, Hurriyet reported.
Four people, including a deputy mayor, were briefly detained in a minor skirmish outside city hall in the southeastern province of Hakkari.
The removed officials are suspected of ties with what the government considers terrorist organization, the Turkish Interior Ministry said Sunday.
The Turkish military said on Wednesday that 186 PKK members had been killed in the operations conducted in the southeastern district of Cukurca over the past few days.
Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union have branded the PKK a “terrorist organisation”.
Advertisement
The government argues however that the emergency measures are essential with the country shaken by the coup and battling the PKK insurgency in the southeast.
