Police arrest mayor in eastern Turkey

By Sener Toktas

BITLIS, Turkey (AA) - The mayor of Turkey’s eastern Bitlis city was arrested on Thursday as part of an anti-terrorism investigation, a police source said.

Teams from the Bitlis Police Department’s anti-terror branch arrested Mayor Huseyin Olan as well as Nevin Dasdemir Dagkiran, an alderman in the municipality, as part of an anti-PKK probe, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

Police were also searching the municipality building.

Thursday’s detentions are the latest in a series of investigations into elected officials of Turkish municipalities.

On Nov. 17, the mayor of Tunceli, Mehmet Ali Bul, Van Mayor Bekir Kaya from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), and four other municipality officials were arrested.

On Nov. 21, two suspended mayors, Ahmet Turk from Mardin province and Emin Irmak from the province’s Artuklu district, were detained.

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 awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges.

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

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year and has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,100 security force members and civilians, including women and children.

Around 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in the same period.