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Turkey names trustee after elected pro-Kurdish mayor jailed
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey has appointed a local administrator to replace the elected mayor of Turkey’s largest mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, who was arrested over alleged links to Kurdish rebels.
Gultan Kisanak — Diyarbakir’s first female mayor — was arrested on Sunday along with co-mayor Firat Anli. They are accused of “membership” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and were placed in a maximum-security prison in western Turkey.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said the government on Tuesday appointed a local Ankara district administrator to take over Kisanak’s duties.
In September, the government similarly ousted 28 mayors and other administrators and appointed trustees in their place.
The mayors are members of a pro-Kurdish party which the government accuses of being the PKK’s political arm — an accusation they reject.
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