Turkey arrests pro-Kurdish HDP deputy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkish police arrested a pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy co-chair Alp Altinors in the early hours of Friday in a house raid in the capital Ankara.

In a press statement on its website, the HDP Foreign Affairs Commission condemned the arrest of Altinors and labeled it as a "clear act of aggression [and] further instance of the campaign of repression on HDP and forces of democratic opposition."

According to the statement, Altinors is being accused of participating in the funeral of a local HDP executive, Zakir Karabulut (24) who was one of the 102 victims killed in the Islamic State (IS) suicide attack on a Kurdish and leftist peace rally in Ankara on October 10, 2015.

Karabulut was a topographic engineering student at a Turkish university.

The HDP accused the Turkish government of staging a "civilian" coup against the opposition.

MAYORS DISMISSED

Meanwhile, Turkish Ministry of Interior Affairs appointed on Friday, a government trustee to the Municipality of the Kurdish district of Kop (Bulanik) in Mus province, dismissing the co-mayors Figen Yasar and Rahmi Çelik who were elected with 86.9% of votes in the 2014 Turkish local elections.

The Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-mayors of are accused of having provided the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) with "logistical support," according to Turkish Dogan news agency.

DBP that holds 100 municipalities, including three metropolitan ones in the Kurdish region of Turkey, is a fraternal party to the HDP.

The Turkish Parliament passed a bill last August that gave power to the government to remove elected local officials and appoint its trustees.

Editing by Ava Homa
(Reporting by Ari Khalidi)