Ayhan Bilgen, the co-mayor of Kars from the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), announced on Tuesday that he had been summoned by a prosecutor to testify in a case filed against him for terrorist links.
“I heard there was a case against me on charges of ‘establishing and running a terrorist organization’,” Bilgen tweeted.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry on Monday removed three Kurdish mayors from Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US. The PKK has been waging a bloody war in Turkey’s Southeast for more than three decades..
Meanwhile, the apartment of another Kars co-mayor, Şevin Alaca, was raided by the İstanbul police on Tuesday.
Alaca said the police did not reveal any information about the investigation.
Bilgen and Alaca garnered some 30 percent of the vote in the March 31 local elections.