Turkey Detains Another Opposition Mayor On ‘Terror’ Charges

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An opposition mayor from southern Turkey was detained Friday on allegations of “belonging to a terror group”, the pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party and Turkish media reported.

Police surrounded the town hall in Akdeniz in Mersin province on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast, detaining mayor Hosyar Sariyildiz and his co-mayor Nuriye Arslan along with four others, TRT Haber TV channel reported.

All six are members of DEM, the third-largest party in parliament, which runs a co-leadership system where a man and a woman jointly run the town hall.

The party is regularly targeted by the authorities who accuse its members of ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which since 1984 has fought an insurgency against Turkey.

It was the latest move by the Turkish authorities to dismiss officials who won office during the local elections of March 2024 and replace them with government-appointed trustees.

So far, no replacement has been named.

In a statement, DEM denounced the move as “a coup against the will of the people”.

Since last year’s vote, six other DEM mayors and one from the main opposition CHP party have been detained and replaced by government-appointed trustees.

Their removal has sparked widespread anger and protests, earning Turkey a rebuke from Europe’s top rights body, the Council of Europe which has denounced the move as “undermining local democracy”.

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