Source: SFGate
“Hundreds gathered Thursday in Istanbul to protest against the arrest and removal from office of a mayor from Turkey’s main opposition party for his alleged links to a banned Kurdish militant group. Ahmet Ozer, mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and a member of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was detained on Wednesday by anti-terrorist police over his alleged connection to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Turkey’s government on Thursday replaced Ozer with Istanbul’s deputy governor, a move the CHP’s leader, Ozgur Ozel and other politicians described as a ‘coup.’ The mayor’s arrest comes as Turkey is debating a tentative peace process to end a 40-year conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state that has led to tens of thousands of deaths. Demonstrators filled a square in Esenyurt after the government banned a rally outside the municipality building.” (10/31/24)