ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Monday sacked three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeast on alleged “terrorism” charges, despite Ankara´s apparent desire to seek a rapprochement with the Kurdish community.

In a sweep, the mayors of the cities of Mardin and Batman as well as the Halfeti district in Sanliurfa province were all removed and replaced with government-appointed trustees, the interior ministry said.

All three belong to DEM, the main pro-Kurdish party, and were elected in March´s local elections, when opposition candidates won in numerous towns and cities, including Istanbul. Among those removed were Ahmet Turk, Mardin´s 82-year-old mayor, along with Batman mayor Gulistan Sonuk and Mehmet Karayilan in Halfeti. The ministry outlined a string of allegations against them, from membership in an armed group to disseminating propaganda for the banned Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK).

Since 1984, the PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state in which more than 40,000 people have died. It is blacklisted as a “terror” group by Turkiye and its Western allies. Kurds make up around 20 percent of Turkiye´s overall population.

DEM swiftly denounced the move as “a major attack on the Kurdish people´s right to vote and be elected”. “The government has adopted the habit of snatching what it couldn´t win through elections through using the judiciary, the police and the trustee system,” a DEM statement said.