Turkish authorities detain Kurdish mayors on terrorism pretext

North-Press Agency

On Friday, Reuters and Anadolu (an official Turkish agency) quoted anonymous security sources in saying that the Turkish authorities arrested four Kurdish mayors on the pretext of links to terrorism. 

The source said that the authorities detained the mayors of Igdir, Sa'arad, Baykan and Kurtalan, who are from the HDP (the Peoples' Democratic Party, a pro-minority left-wing party in Turkey), which supports the rights of the Kurds in Turkey.

Turkish courts have ruled to try thousands of HDP members, and some of its leaders, on the grounds of links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the party denies. 

The Turkish authorities have previously dismissed more than half of the mayors in the administrative centers that the HDP has won since the holding of local elections in March 2019, which are about 65 administrative centers, and replaced them with trustees from the local authorities.

In November 2016, during the failed coup in Turkey, the previous co-presidents of the party Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were arrested by Turkish authorities on charges of "propagating a terrorist organization", and Demirtaş faces penalties of up to 142 years.