In a recent development within the ongoing crackdown on opposition municipalities in Turkey, the Interior Ministry has removed a Kurdish mayor from her position in the southeastern province of Siirt, subsequently appointing a government trustee to assume her responsibilities, Turkish Minute reported.
The ministry’s decision regarding Siirt Mayor Sofya Alağaş, a member of the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), comes shortly after she was sentenced to over six years in prison on terrorism charges for alleged membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The ruling was delivered by a high criminal court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Tuesday. The charges against Alağaş pertained to her activities during her time as a journalist.
Alağaş, who was elected Siirt mayor in the most recent municipal elections in 2024, previously served as the news director of Jin News, a women-focused pro-Kurdish news agency. She was arrested on June 16, 2022, during an investigation led by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which also targeted 15 other journalists.
Prosecutors accused Alağaş of creating news content that allegedly “provoked violence, incited blame against the state and promoted sympathy for the PKK, labelling her work as “PKK journalism.”
Alağaş alleged that the legal process was expedited unfairly, citing incomplete case files and unresolved investigations. “The court ignored these issues, hastened the trial and made its ruling,” she said.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has been waging a bloody war in Turkey’s southeast since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.
Siirt Governor Kemal Kızılkaya has been appointed by the ministry to replace the ousted mayor, Alağaş.
The DEM Party has condemned this decision, calling it an unjust removal of the Siirt mayor and saying that Siirt is the eighth municipality to be “usurped” by the government from DEM Party mayors since the local elections held on March 31, 2024.
The government has also removed the mayors of Hakkari, Mardin, Batman, and Tunceli provinces, as well as the mayors of the districts of Halfeti, Akdeniz, and Bahçesaray.
On Wednesday, DEM Party officials and supporters gathered in front of the Siirt city hall to express their support for the mayor and to protest the appointment of a trustee.
In the latest local elections in March 2024, the DEM Party won a dozen municipalities in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast despite the fact that the party raised allegations of voter fraud that benefited the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The AKP government also took over several municipalities controlled by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) following the March elections, citing terrorism-related court rulings and ongoing investigations.
The recent removal of the mayors has come as a disappointment to many, leading to protests and calls on the government from various segments of society to end the controversial practice and respect the will of the Kurdish people and government opponents.