, along with five others, according to a report from the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency on Friday.){kind=link}
Turkish police have detained Reşat Aşan, the Mersin provincial chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), along with five others, according to a report from the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency on Friday.
The detentions were conducted as part of an investigation launched by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In addition to Aşan, police also detained former provincial chairs of the DEM Party, identified only by their initials F.D., S.G., A.E. and the former president of the Human Rights Association’s Mersin branch, A.T. as well as another individual, F.K., during operations carried out this morning.
The suspects will be transported to İstanbul, according to Mezopotamya.
The detentions come after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government took over several municipalities won by the DEM Party and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in 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, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has killed thousands and is formally recognized as a terrorist group 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 2001.