A mayor from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in eastern Turkey who was arrested on Saturday after she was removed from office has been released from detention under judicial supervision, the Anka news agency reported.
Birsen Orhan, the former co-mayor of the eastern city of Tunceli, was released on Tuesday under judicial supervision measures that include checking in at a police station and a travel ban after her lawyer objected to her arrest.
Orhan was arrested on accusations of resisting law enforcement and violating the law on meetings and demonstrations after taking part in protests in the city over the removal of mayors.
She was removed from office along with Tunceli Co-mayor Cevdet Konak by the Interior Ministry on November 22 on terrorism accusations. The ministry also ousted the district mayor of the Ovacık district in Tunceli from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) the same day. The former mayors were replaced by government-appointed officials.
Orhan was also detained the same day she was removed from office after participating in protests that erupted over the removal of the mayors. She was put under house arrest by a court.
Her second detention is thought to be related to circumstances concerning her house arrest.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government took over several municipalities controlled by the DEM Party and the CHP following the March 31 local elections, citing terrorism-related court rulings and ongoing investigations. The Interior Ministry has appointed governors and district governors as trustees in place of the elected mayors.
The mayors are suspected of or accused of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
The parties deny the accusations and describe them as politically motivated. They accuse the AKP government of “usurping the people’s will” and taking revenge for its loss of support in the local elections in which the party sustained its worst defeat since its establishment in 2021.