Turkiye reinstates pro-Kurdish Mayor in Van after widespread protests

Turkiye’s election authority has reinstated the winner of the mayoral elections from a pro-Kurdish party in the eastern city of Van, shortly after initially removing his candidacy. As a result of the recent municipal elections throughout Turkiye, Abdullah Zeydan, the candidate of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM, won over 55 per cent of the vote in the city of Van, while his rival from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 27 per cent of the vote.) The regional election board had rescinded Zeydan’s victory, however, citing a previous conviction in 2016 over his criticism of the military’s operation against Kurdish militants in Syria, which caused the Turkish justice ministry to reverse his right to stand […]