Turkey removes two dozen elected mayors in Kurdish militant crackdown

Turkish authorities appointed on 11 September 2016 new administrators in 28 municipalities in the Kurdish region, after removing elected mayors over suspected links to militants. The decision triggered protests in the area, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. The municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denied direct links to the militants and decried the move as an 'administrative coup'.

Earlier in the week, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had warned that the ongoing campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was the country's largest ever.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: The exclusion of the pro-Kurd HDP in post-coup Turkey http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-exclusion-of-the-pro-kurd-hdp-in-post-coup-turkey/

Hürriyet Daily News, 12.09.16: Turkey’s high risk, high return move on the Kurdish problem http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-high-risk-high-return-move-on-the-kurdish-problem.aspx?PageID=238&NID=103806

Deutsche Welle, 11.09.16: Turkey removes 24 mayors over links to Kurdish rebels http://dw.com/p/1K025

Washington Post, 09.09.16: Turkey to oust 28 pro-Kurdish mayors, administrators https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-to-oust-28-elected-kurdish-mayors/2016/09/09/1cfa50ea-76a4-11e6-9781-49e591781754_story.html

Hürriyet Daily News, 11.09.16: 28 mayors replaced with trustees by Turkish government http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/28-mayors-replaced-with-trustees-by-turkish-government.aspx?PageID=238&NID=103784

EurActiv, 12.09.16: Car bomb attack on Turkey’s ruling party wounds 48 http://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/car-bomb-attack-on-turkey-ruling-party-wounds-48/

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