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| The Grand Turk |
| Turkey detains mayor, appoints administrators in southeast : sources |
| 2016-11-18 |
| [AlAhram] ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... detained the mayor of the southeastern city of Van on Thursday, replacing him and two other mayors in the region, security sources said, pressing on with a crackdown on pro-Kurdish politicians. The government appointed administrators to run the municipalities in Van and the provinces of Siirt and Mardin in the mainly Kurdish southeast, said the sources, who declined to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to media. State-run Anadolu Agency said police detained Van mayor Bekir Kaya at the council offices in the city on the shores of Lake Van, the heart of a province with a population of 1.1 million. Police searched municipality offices and the houses of Kaya and four other council officials, Anadolu reported. Kaya was sentenced to 15 years in jail in January on a charge of "terror group membership", the agency said, but was appealing the verdict. It said the interior ministry appointed Van Governor Ibrahim Tasyapan to run the municipality in place of Kaya, who is from the sister party of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), parliament's second biggest opposition party. Thousands of their members, including party leaders and dozens of mayors have been detained in investigations accusing them of PKK links. The parties deny such ties and say they working for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. At the start of November, Turkish authorities appointed an administrator to run the southeast's largest city of Diyarbakir, having tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! its co-mayors over alleged PKK ties. On Wednesday, the mayors of Siirt and the eastern city of Tunceli were arrested over similar accusations. |
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