The Ministry of Interior of Turkey removed the mayors of two more cities on the grounds that trials are pending against them, accused of being linked to the Kurdish PKK organization and terrorism cases.

The interior ministry announced that it had replaced the city’s mayors of Kurdish origin Tunceli in eastern Turkey, Cevdet Konak, and the neighboring province of Ovacik, Mustafa Sarigiulby appointed observers. The ministry also said that “the two mayors had been convicted of membership in the PKK terrorist organization by a local court and sentenced to six years and three months in prison.” Konak is also being investigated for pro-PKK propaganda.

The two mayors were elected in the recent local elections, on March 31, 2024, Konak with the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality Party (DEM), while Sarigul with the official opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

At the beginning of the month, the interior ministry announced that it had removed the mayors of three other cities in southeastern Turkey, also on the grounds that they were pending trials, accused of being linked to the PKK organization and terrorism cases.

It was about the Kurdish mayors of the city of Mardin, Ahmet Turk, Batman, Gulistan Soluk, and Halfeti, Mehmet Karagilan. All of them were elected mayors with the DEM in the recent local elections on March 31, 2024.

The 82-year-old Ahmet Turka veteran politician of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish parties and a former member of parliament, has been elected and removed by decision of the Ministry of Interior two more times from the office of mayor of Mardin, in 2016 and 2019. In the last election, he was elected mayor with a percentage of 57.40%.

On October 30, the Turkish authorities arrested Ahmet Ozer, the mayor of Esenyurt, the largest municipality in the metropolitan area of ​​Istanbul with a population of one million inhabitants, on the charge that there are “strong suspicions of committing a criminal act” against him as a member of the Kurdish organization PKK. The interior ministry then removed him from his post and also appointed him to the post of inspector.

THE Ahmet Ozer was elected mayor of Esenyurt in the elections of March 31 this year by the Kemalist CHP, while in the two years 2022-23 he was an adviser to the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu.