ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Officials and members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) publicly addressing state dismissal of its mayors were detained by police in the Turkish capital city of Ankara on Wednesday, the party has announced.
Turkey’s interior ministry removed from office and detained HDP mayors in the municipalities of Igdir, Siirt, Baykan, Kurtalan, and Altinova on Friday for alleged links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in yet another wave of a government crackdown on party officials.
The party said on Wednesday that their Ankara province co-chairs and other party members took to the front of their office to read out a statement responding to Friday’s raids but were blocked from doing so by police, who then detained some of those involved.
“Central Executive Member, Ankara provincial co-chair & party members have been detained while they were making a press statement about the latest trustee appointment to our municipalities,”read an English-language tweet from the HDP, which added that the government “cannot intimidate us with such attacks. We will continue to defend people's will."
The HDP did not give a definite total for those arrested, but called for the immediate release of four officials it announced were being held.
The party’s Sanliurfa deputy Omer Ocalan published a video, apparently filmed from above from inside the office, purportedly showing a party member being bundled into a van by police officers.
The HDP is a frequent target of state crackdown, and is accused by Ankara of being the political wing of the PKK, which has been involved in a decades-long conflict with the Turkish state in pursuit of cultural and political rights for Kurds in the country.
The HDP has denied organic links to the Kurdish rebels - but unlike the state or other Turkish political parties, it does not view the PKK as a terrorist organization and has expressed its respect for the ideology of jailed party leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The party won 65 of over a thousand municipalities in the March 2019 local elections, but six mayor-elects were banned from taking up office on the grounds that they had been previously dismissed by the government.
According to official party data sent to Rudaw English, only 14 of the HDP mayors remain in office.
EU backlash
The European Union has released two statements condemning the removal of the mayors this week.
Anders Knape, president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, said on Tuesday that Ankara continues dismissing Kurdish mayors “[e]ven during the current COVID-19 pandemic.”
“[T]he excessive use of legal proceedings against local elected representatives and their replacement by state appointed officials is not only an affront to those who stand up for free and fair elections, it is also a serious and permanent threat to the proper functioning of local democracy in Turkey,“ he added.
The European External Action Service (EEAS), which manages the EU’s diplomatic relations with other states, said Monday that the recent dismissal of five mayors belonging to the HDP in southeast Turkey “appear to be politically motivated.”
“Decisions and actions taken by the Turkish authorities against municipalities with mayors from opposition parties remain of deep concern, in particular when they appear to be politically motivated,” it added.
Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, HDP deputy and a member of Turkish parliament’s Human Rights Committee told Rudaw English on Tuesday that the EU has failed to show “strong reactions” against human rights violations in Turkey, for fear Ankara could set a new wave of refugees upon Europe.
“The European Union does not show strong reactions with some concerns. There have been crises about refugees. Following these crises, after Erdogan has used the refugees as a political card, the European Union spends the day with prudent condemnation,” said Gergerlioglu.
He called on the EU to replace its “prudent” condemnations of Ankara with “stricter language.”
“The European Union should use a stricter language and apply stricter sanctions because the appointment of trustees clearly means disregarding the will of the people. It is an incredible massacre of democracy.”
