Using special powers under the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the abortive putsch, they have been replaced by state-appointed trustees, similar to administrators appointed to head a company that goes into bankruptcy. “If mayors and town councilors finance terrorism by transferring public funds allocated to them to serve the people. they lose their democratic legitimacy”. He denies the charge. The incumbents had been elected in 2014 local polls.
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The municipalities affected – mainly in the Kurdish-dominated south-east – include important urban areas known as centres of PKK activity such as Sur and Silvan in the Diyarbakir region and Nusaybin in the Mardin region.
There were also disturbances in the main regional city of Diyarbarkir and in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, where police entered the municipality building and unfurled a large red Turkish flag, taking down the white local government flags that had previously flown. The interior ministry said 12 of the mayors suspended were already under arrest. Co-Mayor Fatma Yildiz, who was replaced Sunday morning, said the decision was “a blow against the will of the people”, Dogan reported.
There were scuffles between protesters and police outside the town hall in Hakkari and also in Suruc in the Sanliurfa region where dozens were killed past year in an IS suicide bombing, Dogan said.
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”.
Government forces have launched a massive crackdown on Gulen’s supporters in Turkey.
“Ignoring the voters’ will, rendering local administrations ineffective, this unlawful regulation is null and void for us”, the HDP said.
The letter said the group was particularly disturbed by the detention of novelist Ahmet Altan and his brother Mehmet Altan, an economics professor, who Turkey accused of transmitting subliminal messages to rally coup supporters on TV the night before the coup attempt.
“This illegal and arbitrary stance will result in the deepening of current problems in Kurdish cities, and the Kurdish issue becoming unresolvable”, the party said in a statement, clarifying that it is not promoting the militants, but wants to negotiate an end to the insurgency, Reuters reported.
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“Mayors and town councillors, who come to power through elections, must perform their duties according to the law”, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said.
