DIYARBAKIR: Police detained a pro-Kurdish party mayor in southeast Turkiye on Monday over alleged militant links and he has been replaced by the state governor, the interior ministry said, two months after the mayor won power in local elections.
After previous municipal elections, Turkiye detained pro-Kurdish mayors, removing virtually all from their posts to be replaced by state officials over charges of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Mehmet Siddik Akis, mayor of Hakkari province bordering Iran and Iraq, was accused of having a high-level role in the PKK militant group, the ministry said in a statement on X.
A security source said police teams carried out a search at the Hakkari municipal building and kept out members of Akis’ pro-Kurdish DEM party, the third largest in Turkiye’s parliament.
Akis and his lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment but his party was set to hold a news conference regarding the situation. DEM has previously denied any association with the PKK.
“The government, which is defeated by the will of the people every time, has again resorted to the way it knows best: usurping (the people’s) will and conducting a coup,” DEM said in a statement about the mayor’s arrest.
In the March 31 local elections, DEM reaffirmed its regional strength, winning 10 provinces in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
Turkish authorities accuse DEM and its pro-Kurdish predecessors of ties to the PKK, which is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Over 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK’s separatist insurgency against the Turkish state, launched in 1984.
Turkiye arrests pro-Kurdish mayor two months after election
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Turkiye arrests pro-Kurdish mayor two months after election
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
