Several HDP Co-Mayors Detained in Raids

Photo: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The police have raided several municipalities in the mostly Kurdish populated provinces of Hakkari, Mardin and Van and detained numerous local municipal administrators, including co-mayors.

Hakkari

Police special operations teams raided Hakkari Municipality and the house of Hakkari Co-Mayor Cihan Karaman this morning (October 15). Karaman, as well as Yüksekova District Co-Mayors Remziye Yaşar and İrfan Sarı, were detained.

Mardin

The police detained Nusaybin District Co-Mayors Semire Nergiz and Ferhat Kut in raids in their houses.

The HDP's "crisis center" in Nusaybin was also raided by the police. The center was established to help the people of the border town which has become a target of mortar attacks since the beginning of Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria.

Nusaybin Municipal Council member Mehmet Emin Alkan was detained at the crisis center. The police also beat people working at the center and broke the door of the office, according to the Mezopotamya Agency.

Van

Erciş District Co-Mayors Yıldız Çetin and Bayram Çilek were detained in a police raid in the municipal building.

Municipal Council member Erhan Akbaş, HDP District Co-Chairs Hicran Kandemir and Şakir Asıl and Baran Karaca were detained in raids in their houses.

Mayors of Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van were replaced with government-appointed trustees in August. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, "'Co-mayor' means challenging the state. It means 'I don't recognize the state,'" at the time. The system of co-mayorship was one of the reasons for the mayors' dismissals.

The Governorship of Van announced that the raids were conducted as part of an investigation against the HDP members for "being a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party / Kurdistan Communities Union" (PKK/KCK). (AS/VK)