Ahmet Özer, mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was arrested by anti-terrorism police on Wednesday for his alleged hyperlinks to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Hundreds of individuals gathered in Istanbul to protest the arrest and removing from workplace of a mayor from Turkey’s predominant opposition occasion over alleged hyperlinks to a banned Kurdish militant group.
Ahmet Özer, mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was arrested by anti-terrorism police on Wednesday for his alleged hyperlinks to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
The authorities changed Özer with Istanbul’s deputy governor on Thursday, a transfer that CHP chief Özgür Özel and different politicians described as a “coup.”
Protesters stuffed a sq. in Esenyurt, a western suburb on Istanbul’s European facet, after the federal government banned an illustration outdoors the municipality constructing.
Some carried banners studying “We need an elected mayor, not an appointed mayor” and referred to as for the resignation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s authorities.
Özer, 64, is a former tutorial from Van in japanese Türkiye.
He was elected mayor of Esenyurt within the native elections in March.
The state-run Anadolu information company reported that Istanbul’s common prosecutor’s workplace stated an investigation confirmed that Özer had maintained contacts with PKK figures for greater than 10 years.
His house, car and workplace within the municipality had been searched on Wednesday as a part of the investigation.
Özer’s arrest comes after the assault on the headquarters of the Turkish protection firm TUSAS in Ankara on October 24 that left 5 folks useless. The PKK claimed accountability for the assault.
Meanwhile, Turkey is discussing a tentative peace course of to finish a four-decade battle between the PKK and the Turkish state that has left tens of 1000’s useless.
The PKK initially sought to create an impartial Kurdish state, however modified its objectives within the Nineteen Nineties by calling for better political and cultural rights for Kurds inside Turkey.
Turkey’s Western allies, together with the United States and the European Union, take into account the PKK a terrorist group.
