Mr Erdogan used his message to the nation on the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha to reaffirm his hard line against the government’s declared enemies.
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Mr Erdogan also promised no let-up for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the “Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (Feto)”, as Turkey dubs Mr Gulen’s movement, which it accuses of plotting July’s failed military coup.
“We reiterate that the regulation enabling assignments of trustees over municipalities, brought through a Decree with the Power of Law by the AKP administration and Erdogan, violates multiple Constitutional clauses, democratic worldwide agreements signed by Turkey, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Local Self Government, the universal law and fundamental human rights”, the pro-Kurdish party said in a statement on Sunday.
The ministry said in a statement that when local governments “come under the influence of terrorist organizations, it is the state’s primary duty to take precautions against those who have usurped the people’s will”. The mayors, mainly in the southeast, were linked to the July 15 attempted coup, the ministry said.
The Turkish leader also said the PKK had been trying to step up its attacks and that it had a clear aim of disrupting Turkey’s military operations in Syria.
The crackdown comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of us -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating the attempted coup in July.
Activists in Diyarbakir, a Turkish city of with a large Kurdish presence, embarked on a hunger strike “to protest the lack of information” about Ocalan’s safety, the Kurdish news outlet said. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
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 previous year in an IS suicide bombing, Dogan said. The main pro-Kurdish opposition party called it an “administrative coup”.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara posted a statement on its website and Twitter that it is concerned by reports of clashes in southeastern Turkey, following the government decision to remove the mayors.
“This unlawful and arbitrary action will only deepen existing problems in Kurdish towns and cause the Kurdish issue to be even more unsolvable”, it added.
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New administrators were appointed in all of the municipalities.
