Turkey’s interior ministry on Friday removed 4 mayors from the Kurdish opposition party, the Turkish media reported, bringing the total number of suspended Kurdish mayors to 44, according to the Mezapotamya news agency.
Siirt Mayor Berivan Helen Işık, Iğdır Mayor Yaşar Akkuş and mayors from two districts of the Siirt province, Ramazan Sarsılmaz and Baran Akgül, were also detained by police as part of a terrorism-related investigation.
“This morning, Iğdır, Siirt, Kurtalan and Baykan municipalities are seized [by the government]. The regime once more showed its enmity towards the people and the people’s will,” pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) tweeted on Friday.
Since the local elections in March 2019, 44 out of 65 mayors from the HDP ranks have been removed, while 6 mayors were not authorized by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) despite winning the popular vote.
Turkish Minute