The Turkish government has, according to the opposition, since the local elections in March 30 mayors of the pro-Kurdish party HDP made. According to a spokesman for the party, 24 of the elected city leaders have now been replaced by pro-government administrators, six others by rivals from the ruling AKP party. "Thirty of our communities have been illegally occupied since March 31," the HDP tweeted, talking about a "coup" from the government.
The tweet was published after the recent deposition of four chiefs in the southeastern cities of Mardin and Sanliurfa. As the state news agency Anadolu reported, the mayors were dismissed on charges of membership in an "armed terrorist group".
According to the HDP, nearly half of the deputy mayors are in jail for terror charges. The southeast, inhabited mostly by Kurds, is a stronghold of the HDP. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers the opposition party to be the extended arm of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party PKK. The HDP rejects the charge.
Turkey has also been campaigning against the Kurds in northern Syria since October. After the US recalled most of its soldiers from the neighboring country in early October, the Turkish army launched an offensive. Their goal was to push Kurdish YPG forces out of a corridor along the Turkish-Syrian border. The Kurds in Syria then accused the US, for which they had fought against ISIS, that Washington had abandoned them. Read here more about Erdogan's offensive in northern Syria.