Erdogan's Government Dismisses Mayors of Two More Kurdish Cities in Turkey

The Turkish Ministry of Interior has dismissed the mayors of two more cities in the Kurdish regions of the country on the grounds of committing 'terrorist' crimes and temporarily replaced them with two individuals of its choice. According to the ministry's statement, the appointed mayors from the Turkish government have replaced the elected Kurdish mayors of Tunceli (Dersim) and Ovacik. The mayor of Tunceli is a member of the 'Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party,' which currently holds 57 seats in the Turkish parliament. Previously, dozens of Kurdish mayors from this party and its predecessor, the Democratic Regions Party, have been dismissed under the pretext of committing 'terrorist' crimes and replaced by mayors appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. The mayor of Ovacik is also a member of the Republican People's Party, the main opposition party to Erdogan's Justice and Development Party. Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the Republican People's Party, stated that government officials considered the mayor's participation in a funeral ceremony as a 'crime' and used this as a pretext to replace him. According to Ozel, the dismissal of an elected mayor who has served two terms based on his attendance at a funeral 12 years ago is 'unjust' and 'a theft of the people's will.' In recent weeks, Erdogan's government has also dismissed three other Kurdish mayors under the same pretext of 'terrorist' crimes. The dismissal of elected Kurdish mayors comes amid Turkey's extensive military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish regions, which have resulted in the deaths of many Kurdish civilians. The PKK was established in 1979 by a group of mainly Kurdish students and began its armed activities in 1984, claiming to fight for the rights of Kurds in Turkey. Over the past four decades of violent conflict between the Turkish army and the PKK, more than 40,000 Turkish citizens have been killed, and hundreds of thousands more have been forced to relocate from Turkish Kurdistan to other regions of the country and the world. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey, and the European Union.