Turkey: Mayor nabbed for alleged ties to terrorist PKK

By Abdullah Soylemez

AGRI, Turkey (AA) – As part of a terror probe in eastern Turkey, a mayor and several local officials from an opposition political party were arrested Monday, according to security sources.

Mayor Betul Yasar of the Diyadin district of Agri province and other former employees of the municipality were arrested over alleged terror ties.

Mayor Yasar is believed to have hired relatives of dead terrorists.

Former administrative staff arrested in Diyadin included Mustafa Alpaslan and Mesut Arslan.

Zeynel Abidin Bozkurt, also a former administrative official of the Diyadin municipality, was arrested in the northwestern province of Duzce.

Yasar, Bozkurt and Alpaslan were charged for membership to a terror group and spreading their propaganda.

Arslan was charged for membership to a terror group.

Police also searched the municipality building to collect evidence.

The Turkish government accuses the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of links with the terror group PKK, and a large number of local HDP mayors have been suspended from office, facing terrorism charges.

Since last year, dozens of families have been staging a sit-in protest outside the HDP office in the southeastern Diyarbakir province, accusing party officials of helping the PKK terror group forcibly recruit their children.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.