ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey on Saturday removed another elected pro-Kurdish provincial mayor over convictions on terrorism-related charges and appointed a state official in his place, the interior ministry said.
The local governor replaced Abdullah Zeydan, a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and mayor of the eastern province of Van because of his recent conviction for “assisting an armed terrorist organisation”, the ministry said in a statement.
Eight DEM Party-member mayors and two main opposition CHP-member mayors across Turkey have been removed from their posts over terrorism-related charges since March 2024 local elections. Another CHP-member mayor has been under arrest over tender-rigging charges.
DEM, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat parliament, said the trustee appointment to the Van municipality was “a blow to people’s will”, and it will not “bow to this unlawfulness”.
Opposition politicians have faced a series of legal probes, detentions and arrests in what critics say is a government effort to muzzle dissent and hurt their electoral prospects.
Turkey’s government dismisses accusations of political interference in the cases and says the judiciary is independent.
On Friday, a legal probe into a top official at Turkey’s main business group TUSIAD was launched over his criticisms on the recent judicial crackdown on opposition leaders, mayors and journalists.
The European Parliament on Thursday condemned the legal actions against opposition mayors as a “disregard of the rule of law and the government’s violation of the fundamental principles of democracy”.
Saturday’s move also comes amid talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever, Editing by Stephen Coates)
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