Turkish police on Thursday detained the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of the eastern city of Van, the latest in a series of raids targeting municipal chiefs in the region, state media said.
Bekir Kaya was taken into custody as part of a “terror investigation”, the official news agency Anadolu reported, saying he was accused of links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Arrest warrants were also issued for four other municipal officials in the city, which has a mixed Kurdish and Turkish population, Anadolu said.
The targeting of city heads comes as 10 MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including its co-leaders, are being held in jail on charges of links to the PKK in a crackdown that has caused international alarm.
On Wednesday, mayors in the southeastern city of Siirt and the eastern city of Tunceli were arrested on similar accusations of links to the PKK, Anadolu said.
Meanwhile, the two mayors of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir were arrested last month. Government-appointed trustees have been named to replace all the detained mayors, the interior ministry said.
Source: AFP
