In a surprising development Erdogan administration sacked a CHP mayor in the Esenyurt, a borough of Istanbul, as well as three Kurdish DEM mayors in South Eastern cities and township. All are accused of aiding and abetting PKK torero organization. The move was surprising because, Erdogan ally Bahceli had extended an olive branch to DEM and PKK’s incarcerated leader Abdullah Ocalan during May. In other words, Bahceli’s actions suggested a new round of negotiations with Kurdish actors might soon get underway, to end wide-spread persecution and disenfranchisement of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. The ousters, believed to be ordered by Erdogan don’t if into this approach.
It may be true that Erdogan and Bahceli don’t seem eye to eye on the matter of what to do with Kurds, or they are playing bad cop, good cop. The sacking of mayors may soon become the most important controversy in domestic politics, because Turkey is preparing to investigate 37 municipalities controlled by the country’s pro-Kurdish party over alleged ties to terrorism, three sources familiar with the matter told reporter Ragip Soylu of Middle East Eye.
“The police are currently reviewing dozens of Dem-controlled municipalities to determine if there is sufficient evidence to launch formal investigations,” one source familiar told MEE.
If formal investigations are launched, the government may legally unseat all 37 mayors and replace them with state-appointed temporary administrators.
Dem is currently Turkey’s third-largest political party, holding 57 seats in parliament. Its mayoral candidates won elections in 10 cities, 58 provincial districts and seven counties.
The Turkish government generally views Dem as the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has waged a violent insurgency against the state since the 1980s, initially for independence and later for greater cultural autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish population. Dem denies any links to the PKK.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled in a speech on Sunday that his government will continue to target mayors allegedly connected to terrorist groups, while maintaining that legal avenues for political participation remain open.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the terrorist organisation’s establishment of extortion mechanisms through municipal power,” Erdogan said following a cabinet meeting.
“We will absolutely not allow this country or our cities to endure a scenario where separatist organisation commissars slap mayors in the basements of municipal buildings, or where municipal tools and equipment are misused for digging trenches instead of providing public services.”
Turkish press is headlining articles about the prospect of CHP’s popular Ankara and Istanbul mayors Messrs. Mansur Yavas and Ekrem Imamoglu also being investigated. CHP claims, the two mayors, also leading rivals of Erdogan in the next presidential race are being investigated by a plethora of intelligence agencies to find dirt on them.
The objective of these contradictory moves is not very clear. One theory is AKP-MHP are using the probes against mayors to attract DEM and CHP to the negotiating table for a new Constitution, which if ratified would also grant the lame-duck president Erdogan a third term. The second theory is that the AKP-MHP alliance plans to capitalize on the arrival of relatively Turkey friendly Trump at the White House, Putin’s preoccupation in Ukraine and the weakening of Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria as a golden opportunity to end PKK and its affiliate YPG-PYD representing Syrian Kurds. As an extension of this plan, DEM mayors will be removed from their posts, allowing AKP-appointed trustees to crack down on restless Kurds and divert state sources to local AKP cronies.
One thing is clear: After a brief spring after 31 March 2024 local elections, when Erdogan, Bahceli and CHP leader Ozgur Ozel tried detente, there is now war.
Comments by Atilla Yesilada
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