On the second day of protests that erupted over the removal of three Kurdish mayors from their posts in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, dozens of people, including two journalists, were forcibly detained by the police, Turkish Minute reported.
The interior ministry announcement of the removal of three mayors, representing the cities of Mardin and Batman as well as Halfeti, a district in Şanlıurfa province, and their replacement with government officials continued to spark demonstrations in eastern Turkey on Tuesday.
All three mayors are members of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), the main pro-Kurdish party, and were elected in the March local election, when opposition candidates won in numerous towns and cities, including İstanbul.
Local media reported on Tuesday that a large group of people, including politicians from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the Labor Party (EMEP) and the DEM Party, in addition to journalists, gathered in front of the Batman municipality building to protest the removal of democratically elected mayors on the second day of demonstrations.
CHP MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu described the trustee appointments as “a blow to the will of the people” in a speech during the protest, while DEM Party co-vice chair Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki stated that opposing the trustee appointments means standing up for Turkey’s democracy.
Sixty-seven people, including two journalists, were detained, according to a statement from the Batman Governor’s Office. The detentions were carried out amid a harsh police response to the protests during which the police used tear gas and armored water cannon vehicles (TOMA).
A video released by the Expression Interrupted platform showed JinNews reporter Pelşin Çetinkaya being dragged along the ground by police, despite being identified as a journalist. Veysi Akören, a staff member of the Yeni Yaşam newspaper, was also detained during the protests in Batman.
Seven more demonstrators were detained in Van on the second day of the protests on Tuesday, according to a report by the Artı Gerçek news website. They were reportedly released after police questioning.
The Mardin Governor’s Office also released a statement on Tuesday, saying that nine people were detained for allegedly attacking police with stones during Monday’s protests near the office of the Mardin municipality.
The DEM Party had previously denounced the mayors’ replacement as “a major attack on the Kurdish people’s right to vote and be elected.”
“The government has adopted the habit of snatching what it couldn’t win through elections using the judiciary, the police and the trustee system,” the party said in a statement on X.
The ministry’s move follows the removal of a district mayor, Ahmet Özer, of the CHP, in İstanbul last week.
All four mayors have been removed from office for convictions and charges on terrorism-related offenses, from membership in an armed group to disseminating propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Since 1984, the PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has killed thousands and is formally recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Dozens of pro-Kurdish mayors from predecessor parties have been removed from their posts on similar charges in the past; however, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently expressed full support for efforts to reach out to Turkey’s Kurdish population, describing it as a “window of opportunity.”
