Diyarbakır Mayor Gülten Kışanak, a member of the pro-PKK Democratic Regions Party (DBP), was yesterday indicted for malpractice by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
Kışanak's DBP Diyarbakır Municipality, the local wing of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), yesterday halted public bus services as a reaction to the appointment of administrators to some DBP municipalities by security decree. The Prosecutor's Office ruled that the municipality's action victimized the city's populace and launched an investigation into Kışanak.
The buses were garaged yesterday after a decision by the municipality's bus management directorate. Diyarbakır residents are now inconvenienced by insufficient dolmuşes, which remain the only bus service after the municipal buses were halted. Locals reacted angrily to the municipality for its arbitrary treatment and called on Kışanak to use politics in Parliament, not in their city.
The mayors of 29 municipalities were replaced by state administrators in early September through a governmental decree, for allegedly aiding and abetting terrorists. Of the 29 mayors replaced, 25 are accused of links to the PKK, while the remaining four are accused of links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Of these, two are mayors of cities (Batman and Hakkari), 24 are mayors of municipalities and two are mayors of smaller boroughs. Twelve of the 29 mayors are currently in jail pending trial on charges of terrorism. All of those dismissed due to PKK links are from the DBP.
