Turkiye unseats Kurdish mayors in crackdown after peace proposal

Turkiye dismissed the pro-Kurdish mayors of three south-eastern cities on Monday for alleged ties to Kurdish militants, Reuters has reported. According to Turkiye’s interior ministry, it sacked the mayors from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party in the cities of Mardin, Batman and Halfeti, replacing them with government-appointed administrators. The DEM, the third largest party in Turkiye’s parliament, condemned the dismissals. The party said that they stand in sharp contradiction of the recent overture from Ankara that had pointed to a possible peace process in the south east of the country. “It is a repetition of the bankrupt attacks that have been continuing since 1994 to eliminate the Kurdish people from democratic politics,” said the DEM. “While we were expecting a hand […]