ANKARA: Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party on Thursday hit out at electoral authorities for blocking some of its successful candidates from taking office after a March 31 local vote.
The Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on Wednesday ordered that individuals sacked by an emergency decree during purges after a 2016 failed coup could not take up their posts despite being elected, DHA news agency reported.
The candidate who came second would be able to serve in the post instead, DHA said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often accused the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of ties with PKK Kurdish militants, a charge the party denies.
The HDP said the YSK decision affects many candidates who had already been authorized to stand in the ballot by the same electoral council.
“This step taken by the YSK is part of a deliberate political conspiracy, nothing else” by the ruling AKP and its coalition nationalist MHP partner, HDP spokesman Saruhan Oluc told reporters in Ankara.
The HDP cannot challenge the YSK’s move or even take the council to court, Oluc said, but urged the YSK to reverse the decision.
“Show respect to the people’s will,” he said.
Hundreds of HDP members and around 40 of its mayors are currently in detention, accused by authorities of ties to PKK militants who are fighting a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
An HDP official who asked not to be identified told AFP that eight of the party’s candidates elected in the Kurdish-majority southeast were affected by YSK’s move.
One of those was the HDP candidate for the Baglar district of Diyarbakir, who won with more than 70 percent of the vote.
The candidate who came second was from Erdogan’s AKP, with 25 percent. In most of the areas affected, the second candidate is from the AKP.
More than 140,000 people were sacked or suspended from the civil service or public institutions after the 2016 failed overthrow of Erdogan, blamed by Turkey on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies Ankara’s accusations.
The majority of those sacked including teachers are accused of links to Gulen but several thousand are suspected of Kurdish militant links.
After the failed coup, the government installed local administrators to replace 95 of the 102 municipalities held by pro-Kurdish mayors elected in 2014.
Before the vote last week, Erdogan threatened to do the same again, replacing mayors linked to “terrorism,” he said.
Pro-Kurdish party slams Turkey ban on elected mayors taking office
Pro-Kurdish party slams Turkey ban on elected mayors taking office
- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often accused the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of ties with PKK Kurdish militants
- HDP has always denied its alleged links to the militant group
Trump taps Tony Blair, US military head for Gaza
- Blair is a controversial choice in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure he was an “acceptable choice to everybody”
- The plan’s second phase is now underway, though clouded by allegations of aid shortages and violence
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday gave a key role in post-war Gaza to former British prime minister Tony Blair and appointed a US officer to lead a nascent security force.
Trump named members of a board to help supervise Gaza that was dominated by Americans, as he promotes a controversial vision of economic development in a territory that lies in rubble after two-plus years of relentless Israeli bombardment.
The step came after a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern Gaza held its first meeting in Cairo which was attended by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who plays a key role on the Middle East.
Trump has already declared himself the chair of a “Board of Peace” and on Friday announced its full membership that will include Blair as well as senior Americans — Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business partner turned globe-trotting negotiator.
Blair is a controversial figure in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure Blair was an “acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair spent years focused on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as representative of the “Middle East Quartet” — the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia — after leaving Downing Street in 2007.
The White House said the Board of Peace will take on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilization.”
Trump, a real-estate developer, has previously mused about turning devastated Gaza into a Riviera-style area of resorts, although he has backed away from calls to forcibly displace the population.
The other members of the board are World Bank President Ajay Banga, an Indian-born American businessman; billionaire US financier Marc Rowan; and Robert Gabriel, a loyal Trump aide who serves on the National Security Council.
Israel strikes
Israel’s military said Friday it had again hit the Gaza Strip in response to a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire declared in October.
The strikes come despite Washington announcing that the Gaza plan had gone on to a second phrase — from implementing the ceasefire to disarming Hamas, whose October, 2023 attack on Israel prompted the massive Israeli offensive.
Trump on Friday named US Major General Jasper Jeffers to head the International Stabilization Force, which will be tasked with providing security in Gaza and training a new police force to succeed Hamas.
Jeffers, from special operations in US Central Command, in late 2024 was put in charge of monitoring a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, which has continued periodic strikes aimed at Hezbollah militants.
The United States has been searching the world for countries to contribute to the force, with Indonesia an early volunteer.
But diplomats expect challenges in seeing countries send troops so long as Hamas does not agree to disarm fully.
