Turkish authorities on Friday detained four more elected mayors from Turkey’s mainly Kurdish populated east and southeast regions.
This comes as the government continues with efforts to crackdown on a pro-Kurdish party it accuses of links to Kurdish militants.
The mayors from the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, were detained at their homes, removed from office and replaced with government-appointed trustees, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
A fifth mayor was also fired but has not been detained.
The government accuses the party of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The HDP denies the accusation.
The HDP denounced the crackdown on the elected mayors as a government “coup,” the Associated Press reported.
“This amounts to the rejection of democracy, this amounts to the non-recognition of the will of the people,” said party co-chairman Mithat Sancar.
The Kurdish people would not yield to pressure and would fight for their democratic rights, Sancar said at a news conference.
The four mayors were elected to office in local elections last year.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has criticized Turkey’s crackdown against the mayors, saying it amounts to a violation of voters’ rights.
Separately, Reuters reported that the Turkish authorities have also detained 38 people over an attack Thursday that killed two workers who were distributing aid to people in a district in eastern Turkey.
The attack on Thursday targeted two municipality personnel and a civilian returning from distributing aid to a neighborhood placed under quarantine as part of measures to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Turkey's communication director Fahrettin Altun and other officials blamed the PKK for carrying out the attack.
