Turkey’s opposition protests Mayor’s arrest for alleged extremist ties

Turkish opposition groups demonstrated Thursday over what they described as a politically motivated arrest of an opposition mayor for alleged ties to the banned Kurdish PKK insurgent organization.

Ahmet Ozer, 64, mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was arrested early Wednesday, and the government quickly appointed a trustee to replace him.

Demonstrators were summoned outside Esenyurt town hall by both the CHP and DEM, the biggest pro-Kurdish party, which denounced his arrest as a “political coup”.

However, the venue had to be shifted because police closed down the area and outlawed demonstrations, resulting in over a thousand protesters gathering in a square several kilometers (miles) away.

The interior ministry said Ozer was arrested for “membership of the PKK terror organisation”, with prosecutors alleging he had been in contact with alleged PKK members for 10 years.

The PKK, which since 1984 has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has killed thousands, is blacklisted as a terror organisation by Turkey and its Western allies.

Taken to the Caglayan courthouse on Wednesday night, Ozer denied the charges.

The arrest comes a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed full support for one of his political ally’s attempts to reach out to Turkey’s Kurds, describing it as a “window of opportunity”.

The Turkish government has removed dozens of elected Kurdish mayors in the southeast and replaced them with its own trustees.