Mayors Ahmet Turk and Emin Irmak Among Those Arrested
MARDIN, Turkey (A.W.)—The Mayor of Metropolitan Mardin and member of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Ahmet Turk, was detained on Nov. 21 along with Artuklu district Mayor Emin Irmak, in what Turkish authorities called a “terror investigation.”
A scene from one of the arrests. (Photo: IHA)
Turk was suspended from duty for days earlier, on Nov. 17, on trumped up charges in an ongoing terror probe to find links between the DBP and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Authorities raided and conducted searches at Turk’s residence in Mardin at around 10:15 a.m. before he was subsequently taken to the police headquarters to testify, reported Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper.
Irmak, the Mayor of Mardin’s central Artuklu district, of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was detained at his office as a part of the operation.
Ahmet Turk (Photo: Mahmut Bozarslan)
According to Hurriyet, police also detained another seven local administrators, including Artuklu deputy mayors Ismet Birtek and Mehmet Yildirim, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Secretary General Baran Ilhan, Artuklu municipality laywer Ziya Bagi, council member Mehmet Ali Amak, and two municipality personnel Seyhmus Aman and Sultan Bingol on the same day.
Turk, 74, is the former chairman of the now defunct pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. On Dec. 11, 2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey voted to ban the DTP, accusing it of connection with the PKK. Turk was expelled from the Grand National Assembly, and 36 other party members were banned from joining any political party for five years.
Source: Armenian Weekly
Link: Two Pro-Kurdish Mayors, Several Local Administrators Detained by Turkish Authorities