The parliament “condemns the decision made by the Turkish authorities to remove democratically elected mayors from office on the basis of questionable evidence [and] stresses that these actions continue to undermine the ability of the political opposition to exercise their rights and fulfil their democratic roles,” the resolution read.
It called on Turkish authorities “to reinstate all mayors and other elected officials who won local elections on 31 March 2019 and were prevented from assuming office or were dismissed or replaced with unelected trustees on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations”.
Turkey’s interior ministry removed Diyarbakır mayor Adnan Mizrakli, Mardin mayor Ahmet Turk, and Van mayor Bedia Ozgokce on August 19 for allegedly using public money to support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – an armed group fighting for Kurdish cultural and political rights in Turkey.
All three deposed mayors are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who beat rival candidates of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey’s March 31 local elections.
The removal of the mayors has also been condemned by Human Rights Watch, the European Union, Turkish opposition parties, and other domestic and international bodies.
The HDP has held protests in several Turkish cities in recent weeks to demand their mayors are reinstated.
“While the Turkish government has a legitimate right to fight terrorism, it is also responsible for ensuring this is done in accordance with the rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms enshrined in its Constitution and Turkey’s international commitments and not for political reasons applying broad anti-terror or criminal legislation,” said EU spokesperson Maja Kocijancic on August 19.
Some 418 HDP members were detained in a wave of arrests across 29 provinces on the same day.
The European Parliament also “strongly condemns the politically motivated” sentence of a prominent official from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Canan Kaftancioglu, who was jailed for almost 10 years for making “terrorist propaganda” and insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kaftancioglu, a doctor by profession, played a key role in the shock victory of the CHP’s new Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu earlier this year – the first time Erdogan’s party had lost power in Turkey’s commercial capital for 25 years.
The European Parliament adopted the resolution a day after the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber held a hearing for the case of former-HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas, who has been in jail for terror-related charges since November 2016.
Demirtas was arrested during a Turkish government crackdown following the 2016 attempted coup, which Erdogan believes was instigated by his former ally Fethullah Gulen.
The court is expected to rule on the Demirtas case at a later hearing.
