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Turkey sentences pro-Kurdish mayor to 1 year in prison

ISTANBUL – Turkey’s state-run news agency says the pro-Kurdish mayor of the southeastern city of Siirt has been sentenced to one year of prison on charges of “disseminating terrorist propaganda.”

Anadolu Agency says Tuncer Bakirhan was not present at the hearing Friday in which he was sentenced.

Bakirhan is a member of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, which the government accuses of being the political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The party denies the accusation.

The sentencing comes three days after authorities detained Gultan Kisanak, mayor of Turkey’s largest Kurdish-populated city of Diyarbakir, and another local pro-Kurdish politician, Firat Anli, as part of a terrorism investigation.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement released Friday that it is “very concerned” over Kisanak and Anli’s arrests.

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