Turkey prosecutor probes Diyarbakir mayor

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (K24) - A Turkish prosecutor launched an investigation Wednesday against Gultan Kisanak, co-mayor of Diyarbakir over her remarks last summer about Kurdish self-rule.

Last August, Kisanak protested the arrests of several Kurdish mayors who declared autonomy in their districts and towns in Diyarbakir. Kisanak said, "If the [Turkish] State arrests my mayors, I too, will declare autonomy."

A K24 correspondent in Diyarbakir reported that the Chief Public Prosecutor in Diyarbakir, Ramazan Solmaz accused Kisanak of "propagandising for a terror organisation, disruption of the unity and territorial integrity of the state, and [supports] the separation from the state authority of a certain part of the land under its sovereignty."

A veteran activist and former journalist who served time in Turkish prisons in the 1980s, Kisanak was elected the first female mayor of Diyarbakir in 2014. She also served as a member of the Turkish parliament for two terms throughout 2007-2014.

The probe into the co-mayor's comments came days after an Ankara prosecutor launched an investigation into remarks by the co-chair of the Pro-Kurdish Democratic Peoples' Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, who said that an independent Kurdistan would rise. On Tuesday, the Diyarbakir prosecutor started a probe into the other HDP co-chair, Figen Yuksekdag, regarding a speech she delivered at a major meeting held by Kurdish political parties and civic organisations in Diyarbakir last week demanding self rule and autonomy.

Authorities have arrested, jailed, and suspended at least 18 mayors of Kurdish cities and towns, according to Turkey's Minister of Interior Efkan Ala.

(Siddiq Eren contributed to this report from Diyarbakir)