Turkey detains two mayors of SE province in anti-terror probe

Turkish police detained two suspended mayors in Turkey's southeast province of Mardin on Monday as part of an anti-terror investigation, security sources told Turkish Anadolu Agency.

Ahmet Turk, mayor of Mardin city, and Emin Irmak, mayor of the province's Artuklu district, had been suspended and replaced last week. The two suspects were arrested at their homes.

Monday's arrests are the latest in a series of investigations with elected municipal officials.

On Nov. 17, the mayor of Tunceli province Mehmet Ali Bul, the mayor of Van province Bekir Kaya from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), a social democratic Kurdish political party, and four other municipal officials were arrested.

Earlier this month, 13 lawmakers from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested. Ten, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, remain in custody for trial on terrorism-related charges.

DBP co-head Sebahat Tuncel was detained outside the courthouse in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir on Nov. 4, amid a wave of detentions that targeted senior politicians of the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

In October, the DBP co-mayors of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, were arrested and jailed pending trial on terrorism charges.

Most of the suspects were detained for Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) related activities. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey. Endit