Police detain ousted DBP Mardin co-mayor Ahmet Türk

Police on Nov. 21 detained former Mardin co-mayor Ahmet Türk from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), four days after he was dismissed from his post as a part of a terror investigation, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Police conducted searches at Türk's residence in Mardin at around 10:15 a.m. before he was subsequently taken to the police headquarters to testify.

Along with Türk, the mayor of Mardin's central Artuklu district, Emin Irmak, who is also from the sister party of the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was detained at his office as a part of the operation.

Later in the day, police also detained another seven local administrators, including Artuklu deputy mayors İsmet Birtek and Mehmet Yıldırım, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Secretary General Baran İlhan, Artuklu municipality laywer Ziya Baği, council member Mehmet Ali Amak, and two municipality personnel Şeyhmus Aman and Sultan Bingöl.

The Interior Ministry had appointed Mardin Governor Mustafa Yaman as Mardin co-mayor in place of Türk on Nov. 17 while trustees were appointed to the municipalities of the eastern provinces of Van, Siirt and Tunceli on the same day following operations to detain and arrest the provinces' democratically elected leaders. On Nov. 18, a Van court ordered the arrest of Mayor Bekir Kaya on terror charges.