Dismissed Kurdish mayors and politicians released conditionally in Turkey

Local politicians and mayors from the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) removed on May 15 from their office by Turkey’s Minister of Interior were released under judicial control, the Mezopotamya News Agency reported.

Co-Mayors of Siirt, a south eastern province with a large Kurdish and Arabic population, Berivan Helen Işık and Peymandara Turhan, co-Mayors of Baykan, a district of Siirt, Ramazan Sarsılmaz and Özden Gülmez, co-Mayors of Kurtalan, a district of Siirt, Baran Akgül and Esmer Baran, Siirt Municipality employees Eşref Tekin and Gülçin Köneş as well as Beşir Aksu and Resul Kaçar who had earlier been refused to be given mandates for mayoral office after they had won the municipality elections were sent to the court after they deposed at the Security Directorate.

Peymandara Turhan, Esmer Baran, Eşref Tekin, Gülçin Köneş, Resul Kaçar and Beşir Aksu were released under judicial control. The rest of the Kurdish politicians were released under house arrest.

Beşir Kaya, an HDP member who has been waiting in front of the courthouse for four days, reacted to the appointment of trustees to the municipalities and described the situation as “persecution” and “insult to the Kurdish people”. Kaya said, “It is nothing but persecution. We win the municipality every time. They appoint trustees once again. We will not accept it.”

The HDP appoints one male and one female as mayor to promote gender equality, calling them co-mayors, although only one is recognized by the central government.

Since the local elections in March 2019, 45 out of 65 mayors from the HDP have been removed, while 6 mayors were denied mandate by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) although they won the municipal elections. HDP has currently 12 mayors. 21 HDP co-mayors were still under arrest.

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from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/dismissed-kurdish-mayors-and-politicians-released-conditionally-in-turkey/