Turkey ousts 3 elected pro-Kurdish mayors from office and replaces them with state officials

Turkey on Monday removed three elected pro-Kurdish mayors from office over terrorism-related charges and replaced them with state-appointed officials, the Interior Ministry said.

The move, which comes days after the arrest and ouster from office of a mayor from the country's main opposition party for his alleged links to a banned Kurdish militant group, is seen as a hardening of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government's policies toward the opposition.

It also raises questions about the prospects of a tentative new peace effort to end a 40-year conflict between the militant group and the state that has led to tens of thousands of deaths.

The mayors of the mainly Kurdish-populated provincial capitals of Mardin and Batman, as well as the district mayor for Halfeti, in Sanliurfa province, were ousted from office over their past convictions or ongoing trials and...