Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan cracks down on pro-Kurdish politicians

Source:Deutsche Welle Date:09Oct2020

Sabotage of the opposition

Since the ruling party’s election losses in March 2019, the Turkish government has continuously increased the pressure on the pro-Kurdish HDP. The mayors of most of the 65 municipalities that the party won have been removed and replaced by state-appointed officials. Now, the HDP only controls six small municipalities.

Many sacked officials have been in detention for months, accused of being linked to the terrorist PKK. The party’s joint leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yueksekdag, have been in jail since 2016 despite a lack of evidence.

Baskin Oran, a political scientist at the University of Ankara, argues that the wave of arrests is an attempt to divide the opposition. “The regime has decided to unearth some old cases to sabotage all unity.”