In the aftermath of a failed coup on July 15, 2016, the government of Turkey has removed 24 district mayors, two provincial mayors and two county mayors from office and have replaced them with trustees. The government said in a statement that Turkey removed the mayors to stop local governments from aiding terrorism with public property and funds.
The resources created by the taxes honored by our citizens and the political will aroused by their votes cannot be utilized for the benefit of terrorist organizations.”
According to Reuters, the statement also accused four of the mayors of having links to the Fethullah Gulen movement, which the government claims is responsible for the July coup, though the self-exiled imam has denied it. The 24 other mayors are accused of alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, deemed a terrorist group.
Various Turkish political parties, including the People’s Democratic Party and the Republican People’s Party, have voiced their opposition to the mayors’ removal. They are calling President Tayyip Erdogan’s administration’s widespread move a violation of voters and international law, and its own coup against the Turkish Parliament.
However, Turkey’s Decree Law No. 674 gives the government temporary authority to replace the mayors, along with city council members, who are actively engaged or actively supporting terrorism. Such decrees are permissible during the Parliament-approved State of Emergency authorized by Article 120 of the Turkish Constitution.
To date, 12 of the removed mayors have been arrested, and the rest can be detained up to 30 days.
Individual members of Turkey’s Parliament have said that Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party are using the failed coup to cleanse the government of opposition. Erdogan once launched negotiations with the PKK in 2012, in hopes of ending the insurgency, wrote The Rise of Turkey author, Soner Cagaptay, in the Atlantic in October 2015.
But the dynamic changed during Turkey’s most recent elections in June 2015, when the Kurds—liberal, conservative, and nationalist alike—coalesced around the Kurdish-nationalist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP),” he said.
Since the failed coup more than 100,000 people have been removed from their jobs--in the military, in schools, and in public office. In July, the Turkish government revoked the licenses of 21,000 private school staff, more than 15,000 employees at the education ministry were fired and the country’s education council asked for the resignation of 1,577 university deans, according to The Telegraph.
Kurdish Parliament member Sebahat Tuncel told CNN that there are rumors that Kurdish people working in Turkey’s health care industry will also lose their jobs and be detained over alleged links to PKK.
