Turkish interior minister vows that 28 municipalities will be ‘seized from PKK’s will’

ANKARA

AA photo

The administration of 28 local municipalities accused of supporting terror “will be taken over from the will of the PKK within 15 days,” Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu stated on Sept. 9.

“With the authorization of the KHK [decree law], the administration of 28 municipalities will no longer be in the hands of terrorists or Kandil. They will continue under the administration of people who have absorbed that flag within their hearts,” Soylu said. The Kandil Mountains are the headquarters of the PKK across the border in northern Iraq.

Soylu stressed that it was the “government’s duty to intervene in those who confiscate 80 percent of their employee salaries to send to Kandil.”

The government was given authority to directly appoint trustees to municipalities in a state of emergency decree announced after the failed coup attempt of July 15.

According to the decree, the appointment of trustees to municipalities would be possible if mayors, deputy mayors or members of the municipal council are suspended on terror charges.

The regulation had previously been included in an omnibus bill in parliament but was later removed upon the opposition’s reaction.