Turkey: Mayors remanded over alleged terror links

MARDIN, Turkey

Three southeastern Turkish mayors were remanded in custody due to their suspected links to a terror group, judicial sources said Tuesday.

Gulistan Oncu, Mulkiye Esmez, and Nalan Ozaydin, all three Mardin province mayors from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), were remanded in custody as part of ongoing terrorism investigations, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The mayors were arrested on Nov. 15 and suspended from duty the next day.

Three local officials were appointed as acting mayors in their stead.

In mid-August, mayors in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Mardin, and Van were suspended over alleged terror links. They all were from the HDP, a party which Turkey's government accuses of having links to the terrorist group YPG/PKK.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union -- has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

* Writing by Busra Nur Bilgic Cakmak