Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech as he attends the graduation ceremony of officers and non-commissioned officers at Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy in Ankara, Turkey on August 23, 2019. ( Murat Kula - Anadolu Agency )
ANKARA
Turkey has shown the door to three mayors who served terrorists rather than the people, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.
“If they put the families of our martyrs in front of the municipality, and serve terrorists rather than people, we will also show them the door,” Erdogan said in an event in the capital Ankara.
Earlier this week, mayors of the cities of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van were suspended. They are facing terrorism charges.
The mayors -- Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli, Ahmet Turk, and Bedia Ozgokce Ertan -- are from the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a party Turkey's government has accused of having links to the PKK terror group.
Erdogan said Turkey cannot "sit and watch" those in cahoots with terrorists.
He slammed all those who stayed silent when similar issues recurred in countries like Spain and France, but raised a hue and cry when Turkey took similar security measures.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev and Diyar Guldogan
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