Ahmet Türk

Mardin Co-Mayor Ahmet Türk was referred to a court with a demand for his arrest on Nov. 24 after he was ousted from his elected position by Turkey's authorities.

Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani visited Turkey on Nov. 23 and held talks with turkey's president, prime minister and foreign minister, during which he focused on the ongoing Mosul offensive and the detention of Ahmet Türk, the ousted mayor of Mardin. 

The Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has returned to parliamentary work after boycotting it since Nov. 6, HDP spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen has said, adding that the intra-party discussion over the return is continuing.  

"We are here for now. And we will be here," Bilgen said at the HDP's parliamentary group meeting in the capital Ankara on Nov. 22. 

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.

Turkey has appointed mayors to four municipalities in the southeastern and eastern region of the country following operations to detain and arrest the provinces' democratically elected leaders.

Trustees were appointed to the municipalities of the eastern provinces of Van, Siirt and Tunceli and the southeastern province of Mardin early on Nov. 17. 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Turkey for dissolving a political party in 2009 for alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), saying the party did not promote violence nor warrant such a severe sanction.

Kurdish leader Ahmet Türk fears an emotional break, a disengagement of the Kurdish youth. He issued a strong warning the other day: