The Turkish government has dismissed 24 local mayors over alleged ties to Kurdish militants. The crackdown comes as President Erdogan pushes ahead with a purge of opposition supporters following a failed coup.
The 24 municipalities in the southeastern region were run by local associates of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is the third largest group in the country’s parliament.
New administrators were appointed in all of the municipalities.
Marking the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday on Sunday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, had been trying to step up its attacks since a failed coup attempt in July. The aim was to disrupt Turkey’s military operations in Syria, Erdogan said.
“The PKK has suffered a distinct failure in these bloody attacks, which it has conducted at the cost of its most serious losses in its history,” Erdogan said on Sunday.
“No democratic state can or will allow mayors and parliamentarians to supply the municipality’s resources to finance terrorist organizations,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter of the dismissals.
Nationwide crackdown
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a nationwide crackdown on opposition activists after a failed military coup against his rule in July. The target of the purge is mainly supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of masterminding the putsch.
The government also removed Sunday mayors of four other municipalities – three from the ruling AK party and one from the nationalist MHP opposition – over alleged links to Gulen.
On Friday, Turkish officials also suspended 1,151 teachers in the Kurdish eastern provinces of Tunceli and Van.
Erdogan views the HDP as an extension of the Kurdish PKK militant group. The HDP denies the claim and says it wants a negotiated settlement to the three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy. The organization has been waging a war since 1974, when it took up arms to fight for an independent Kurdish state in Turkey’s east and south.
Nearly 40,000 people, including teachers, journalists, soldiers, businessmen and lawyers, have been arrested in Turkey for suspected links to Gulen. Tens of thousands of government employees have been suspended from their jobs.
shs/jm (Reuters, AP)
