Turkey’s Interior Ministry has appointed Bitlis Governor Ahmet Çınar as a trustee to the Bitlis Municipality, whose co-mayors were recently removed by the government.
Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Bitlis Co-mayors Hüseyin Olan and Nevin Daşdemir Dağkıran were detained on Nov. 24 and arrested one day later on charges of membership in a terrorist organization, involvement in activities on behalf of a terror organization and aiding and abetting a terror organization.
The Turkish government has been widely criticized for cracking down on the Kurdish opposition.
Dozens of trustees have recently been appointed by the Interior Ministry to mostly pro-Kurdish municipalities in Turkey’s Southeast, replacing the elected mayors and municipal council members.
Dozens of local politicians from the DBP have also been arrested over the past weeks on terror charges.
Turkey also arrested 10 deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) including the party’s co-chairs earlier this month.
The DBP is the local affiliate of the HDP.