Turkey seizes another Kurdish city's municipality, removes elected mayors
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Turkish authorities on Saturday removed the elected co-mayors of the Kurdish city of Sirnak and appointed the deputy governor of the province as a trustee to run the municipality.
The removal of Sirnak co-mayors Serhat Kadirhan and Ozlem Onuk of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) came as a round-the-clock curfew in the city entered its ninth month.
Ninety percent of the 63,000 population of Sirnak, most of which now lies in ruins due to March-June fighting between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkish Army, have fled their homes and live in tents in rural areas, according to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
No media have been allowed to enter the city since the curfew began in March.
The newly-appointed mayor and deputy governor of Sirnak Turan Bedirhanoglu had applied to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in an unsuccessful bid to become a parliamentary candidate in the June 2015 general elections, the Kurdistan24 bureau in Diyarbakir learned.
The legally more powerful governors, deputy governors, and sub-governors of all districts and provinces in Turkey are appointed by the strictly central Government in Ankara.
By the appointment of a trustee to Sirnak neighboring the Kurdistan Region, the number of DBP-run municipalities Turkish authorities seized in 12 provinces rose to 30 since a crackdown that began in September.
On Thursday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry dismissed DBP co-mayors Ahmet Demir and Servin Karakoc of the Ovakisla (Pirxus) district in Bitlis Province and appointed the sub-governor as the trustee.
Earlier this week, the Turkish Interior Ministry seized the administration of the metropolitan municipality of Diyarbakir, after putting its two mayors Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli in prison the week before.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government accuse the Kurdish mayors of separatism after last year’s declarations of self-rule and abetting the outlawed PKK.
The DBP won 100 municipalities, including those of the metropolitan cities of Diyarbakir, Mardin, and Van, in the 2014 local elections in Turkey.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Siddiq Eren contributed to this report from Diyarbakir)