Live
- Centre launches campaign for assessment year 2024-25 to help taxpayers
- Dutch cabinet holds out after crisis talks
- Rashmikasparks buzz on Grazia cover page
- Shiva Rajkumar scores another blockbuster with ‘Bhairathi Rangal;’ Telugu release coming soon
- Nayanthara’s open letter to Dhanush: A shocking rift
- ‘Govt job’: Punjab has emerged as role model state, says Kejriwal
- BGT 2024-25: Shubman Gill suffers left-hand injury in training ahead of Perth Test
- Slur against Kumaraswamy wrong, Minister Zameer will be corrected: K’taka Cong
- Australian towns ordered to evacuate amid bushfire threat
- BJP backs LG's crackdown on illegal immigrants in Delhi
Turkey removes pro-Kurdish mayors
The mayors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van provinces in eastern Turkey -- all members of the Peoples' Democratic Party - HDP elected in March -- were suspended.
ANKARA: The Turkish government removed three mayors from office on Monday over alleged links to Kurdish militants, the interior ministry said.
The mayors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van provinces in eastern Turkey -- all members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) elected in March -- were suspended.
The ministry said they had active cases against them for "spreading propaganda" or being a member of a terrorist organisation.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly claimed that the HDP has ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state for much of the past 35 years.
The interior ministry said the governors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van -- appointed by the government -- would be acting mayors.
The HDP denies any links to the PKK, but has tried to broker peace talks between the insurgents and the government.
Hundreds of HDP members and around 40 of its mayors are currently in detention.
The former head of the party, Selahattin Demirtas, has been in prison since November 2016 -- a case that has been criticised by the European Court of Human Rights.
The government launched a crackdown on opposition politicians following a failed coup in July 2016.
Although the coup was not directly linked to the Kurdish issue, the crackdown saw 95 of 102 pro-Kurdish mayors removed from their posts and replaced with central government appointees.
