ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish police in the southern province of Mersin said they had arrested a pro-Kurdish mayor on Friday, along with five other municipal administrators, as part of a terrorism-related investigation.
Hosyar Sariyildiz, a member of the opposition party DEM and mayor of Mersin, Akdeniz district, his deputy Nuriye Arslan and four other party members of the municipal assembly were detained and taken for questioning, the police said in a statement.
It added that they were detained for “conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization”, “membership in an armed terrorist organization” and “violation of the law on the prevention of terrorist financing”.
DEM, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat parliament, said the investigation was fabricated to justify the appointment of a commissioner in Akdeniz Local Government.
“We know these methods very well from the coup d’état practice that the government has been carrying out for years against the will of the people,” DEM said in a post on X.
Many pro-Kurdish mayors and local administrators have been arrested in similar operations in recent years. The government usually appointed a commissioner to the post during the court proceedings.
The government has not yet announced the appointment of the commissioner.
The detentions come amid efforts in Turkey to end a 40-year conflict between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militia and the state, which have raised hopes for peace.
Turkey, the US and the European Union consider the PKK a terrorist organization.
