Turkey: Kurdish mayors dismissed
The mayor of Istanbul's Esenyurt district, Ahmet Özer (CHP), has been detained on charges of terrorism and removed from office. The public prosecutor's office has accused him of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The Turkish government has appointed the deputy governor of Istanbul as a forced administrator to replace Özer. On Monday, three other mayors of the Kurdish left-wing party DEM were dismissed and replaced by forced administrators.
Goal is to cut off the Kurds' lifelines
The government is aiming to blunt the Kurds' most effective political tool, comments Evrensel:
“The local authorities are the means through which Kurdish politicians remain close to the people on a daily basis and develop an alternative policy to that of the government in many areas, in particular language, education, women, culture and art. So there can be no doubt that one of the goals of the forced administrator policy is to cut one of the most important lifelines of Kurdish politics and use these spaces to strengthen its own local bases [of the government camp].”
Media campaigns are part of this operation
The pro-government media have prejudged the arrested Özer, T24 fumes:
“The Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities of Journalists in Turkey includes the principle 'Until a verdict is final, a suspect or defendant may not be declared guilty'. It also calls on them to avoid reports that could influence the investigation, and to publish information on charges and allegations in a fair and balanced manner. These principles have been and continue to be openly and deliberately violated in the reporting on Ahmet Özer in the pro-government media. Those who ignore the presumption of innocence are not practising journalism, they are doing campaign journalism.”
Opposition legitimising terror
The pro-government Star sees the closeness between the CHP and the PKK as problematic:
“Both in the presidential elections in May and in the local elections in March, the CHP positioned itself incorrectly by cooperating with the political arm of the terrorist organisation. ... Since Kılıçdaroğlu became president, the CHP has changed its historical line on terrorism and unfortunately adopted a policy that legitimises terrorist organisations. ... It seems that the arrested mayor is a very, very active supporter of the terrorist organisation!”
Ankara doesn't care what Europe thinks
Criticism from abroad will do nothing to deter the Turkish government, Artı Gerçek comments:
“Prof. Dr. Ahmet Özer, who ran as the CHP candidate in the municipal elections on 31 March and was elected with 49.04 percent of the vote thanks to the 'urban consensus' reached with the [pro-Kurdish] DEM party, has been arrested and replaced by a forced administrator. The European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor, reacted immediately and called for sanctions. However, experience shows that just like the binding rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, the reactions of the EU will do little to deter the despots in Ankara from doing as they please.”