21 November 2016•Update: 23 November 2016
MARDIN, Turkey
Two suspended mayors in Turkey’s southeast were detained on Monday as part of an anti-terror investigation, security sources said.
Ahmet Turk, mayor of Mardin city, and Emin Irmak, mayor of the province’s Artuklu district, had been suspended from duty last week and replaced by Interior Ministry officials.
The two suspects were arrested at their homes, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media.
Monday’s detentions are the latest in a series of investigations into elected officials in Turkish municipalities.
On Nov. 17, the mayor of Tunceli province Mehmet Ali Bul, the mayor of Van province Bekir Kaya from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), and four other municipal officials were arrested.
Earlier this month, 13 lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested. Ten, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, remain in custody awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges.
In October, the DBP co-mayors of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, were arrested and jailed pending trial on terrorism charges.
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year and has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,100 security force members and civilians, including women and children.
Around 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in the same period.
