More than 100 municipalities probed, ten mayors jailed in Turkey's southeast

Ten mayors from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the sister party of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), have been suspended and detained, while 106 municipalities under the DBP have been subject to investigations on charges related to "autonomy," "co-leadership" and "terror." 

Eight mayors have been separately suspended, while one mayor was released on probation and another has remained under house arrest. 

Mayors have been detained on charges of "disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state," "membership to a terrorist organization and making terrorist propaganda," "acting as a human shield" and "providing logistical support to a terrorist organization."

Violence between Turkish security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) reignited in the summer of 2015, shattering a fragile peace process, dubbed a "resolution process" by governmental officials, after a two-and-a-half-year de facto period of non-conflict.

With the restart of conflict, investigations against 106 municipalities held by the DBP have been launched by civil inspectors from the Interior Ministry and controllers from Interior Ministry's Directorate General of Local Administrations as well as by prosecutors. All of these investigations still underway, with three cases investigating 11 provincial municipalities, including metropolitan municipalities in Diyarbak?r, Mardin and Van, 68 investigating district municipalities and 27 investigating town municipalities. In addition to charges leading to the detainment of ten mayors, investigations also include charges such as "cemeteries allocated to PKK" members, "aiding and abetting a terrorist organizations" and "corruption."

Hakkari Mayor Dilek Hatipo?lu and Mayor...