Turkey on Monday sacked three mayors facing terrorism charges in the Kurdish-majority southeast and replaced them with trustees, the interior ministry said. The mayors in the cities of Mardin and Batman as well as Halfeti — a district in the Sanliurfa province — were removed from their positions, the ministry said. The three from the pro-Kurdish DEM party were elected in the March local elections when opposition candidates won in numerous towns and cities across Turkey, including Istanbul. Ahmet Turk won the vote in Mardin, while Gulistan Sonuk was mayor of Batman and Mehmet Karayilan represented Halfeti. Their dismissal comes days after another mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was arrested for alleged links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in an Istanbul district and replaced with a governor.

Ahmet Ozer, 64, mayor of the Istanbul district of Esenyurt, was arrested on Wednesday with the government swiftly appointing a trustee to take his place. Both the CHP and DEM, the main pro-Kurdish party — which slammed his arrest as a “political coup” — protested against what they said was the politically motivated detention of the mayor. The dismissals come after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed full support for one of his political ally’s attempts to reach out to Turkey’s Kurds, describing it as a “window of opportunity”. The Turkish government has removed dozens of elected Kurdish mayors in the southeast and replaced them with its own trustees.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan