Trustees appointed to four HDP municipalities in Turkey’s southeast

VAN/DİYARBAKIR

Turkish authorities on Oct. 22 appointed trustees to the Erciş Municipality in the eastern province of Van and municipalities of Kayapınar, Bismil and Kocaköy in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. The move came after these districts’ elected mayors were suspended over “links to terrorism.”

In the Erciş district, District Governor Nuri Mehmetbeyoğlu was appointed as acting mayor after Yıldız Çetin of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was detained as part of an ongoing terrorism investigation, the provincial governor’s office said.

Çetin is standing trial over the charges of “terror group membership and spreading terror propaganda.”

Dismissed mayor of Diyarbakır arrested 

The dismissed mayor of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Selçuk Mızraklı, was arrested on Oct. 22 as part of an ongoing terror investigation.

In August, Mızraklı was one of the three mayors removed from office over terror propaganda allegations, along with those from Mardin and Van provinces in eastern Turkey.

In Diyarbakır, on the other hand, Ünal Koç, Kerem Süleyman Yüksel, and Yasin Yunak were appointed as acting mayors of Kayapınar, Bismil and Kocaköy. They are at the same time serving as district governors. The move came after Keziban Yilmaz, mayor of Kayapınar; Orhan Ayaz, mayor of Bismil and Rojda Nazlier, mayor of Kocaköy, were detained on Oct. 21 as part of an ongoing terrorism investigation.

The mayors, all from the HDP, were charged with being members of a terror group.

In mid-August, mayors in the provinces of Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van were suspended over alleged terror links. They were all from the HDP, which the Turkish government accuses of having links to the PKK.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.