The Interior Ministry on Monday replaced Mersin Mayor Hoşyar Sarıyıldız with a trustee following his arrest over links to the PKK terrorist group.
Sarıyıldız, a member of the opposition’s Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), his deputy Nuriye Arslan and three other party members of the municipality’s assembly were arrested earlier on Monday, the ministry said in a statement.
They all face charges of “carrying out propaganda for a terrorist organization,” “membership of an armed terrorist organization,” as well as “opposing the law on preventing the financing of terrorism” and “opposing the law on meetings and demonstration marches.”
“Akdeniz District Governor Zeyit Şener has been assigned as deputy mayor of Akdeniz by the Mersin governorate,” the ministry said.
All five of them have been dismissed from duty as a temporary measure, the ministry said, noting that the sixth suspect, a municipal council member, was released on parole.
Many DEM Party mayors and local administrators, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat Parliament, have been detained in similar operations in recent years.
The government typically appoints a trustee to the position during legal proceedings.
DEM Party’s two mayors in the Tunceli and Ovacık districts in eastern Türkiye were replaced by trustees in November.
Türkiye has appointed trustees to nine municipalities in total since the local elections in March 2024.
The detentions come amid efforts in Türkiye aimed at ending the PKK’s terrorism in the country, which have fostered hopes for peace.
The PKK is deemed a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. The group, which has waged its bloody terror campaign since 1984, exploited the Kurdish community to create a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Türkiye.
Turkish officials are opposed to the conflation of the Kurdish community and the PKK, arguing the definition implies Kurds are a problem for Türkiye and abets the PKK’s terrorist agenda.
Tens of thousands of people have already died in the conflict. The last attempt at peace failed in 2015 when the PKK resumed attacks during negotiations.
According to the International Crisis Group, the conflict has shifted from Türkiye to northern Iraq and northern Syria since 2019, after the Turkish military continued to push back PKK terrorists over and away from its borders. However, the group still has operatives within the country.