The Turkish government on Thursday appointed a trustee to a municipality southeastern Adıyaman province after its mayor from the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) was arrested on terrorism charges.
Hüseyin Yuka, the former mayor, was detained on Aug. 16 on allegations of supporting a terrorist group along with two Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) officials in Adıyaman’s Kömürlü district following a bomb explosion that left four Turkish soldiers dead.
The bomb, which killed one soldier on the scene, was reportedly set by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. The three other soldiers were killed by what was described as “friendly fire.”
Yuka was dismissed from his post by the Interior Ministry on the day he was arrested by a local court.
Although DBP politicians had won 102 mayoral posts in the local elections of 2014, the Turkish government has dismissed 95 of them.
Including HDP mayors who were dismissed from office, the figure exceeds 100.