In a new government crackdown on a pro-Kurdish party, Turkey on Monday removed from office the elected mayors of three cities in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeast region over their alleged links to rebels, replacing them with government appointees.
The mayors of the cities of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van — members of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP — were sacked over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and over evidence that they had allegedly aided the outlawed organization, an Interior Ministry statement said.
They were removed some five months after being elected to office in local elections, echoing a similar government move in 2016 during which dozens of mayors from the southeast region were thrown out of office and replaced by government appointees in nearly 100 municipalities during a state of emergency declared after a failed military coup.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had warned prior to the election that pro-Kurdish mayors could be replaced by a caretaker should they win.
Accusations against the three include attending funerals of PKK rebels, changing street or park names to those of known militants and singing the group's anthem, according to the Interior Ministry statement. The ministry also listed a series of charges or ongoing trials against the three mayors.
Separately, police on Monday also detained 418 people suspected of links to the PKK in separate operations in 29 provinces, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The PKK, considered a terror organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has waged an insurgency since 1984 and the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The government accuses HDP politicians of links to the PKK, and Erdogan regularly brands them terrorists and traitors.
The HDP insists it advocates Kurdish rights and democracy through legal, political means.
Several party lawmakers, including former chairman Selahattin Demirtas, and mayors have been jailed.