31 August 2019 - 23:58

Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu visits ousted Kurdish mayors in Diyarbakir

<p style="text-align: left;">The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, on Saturday took a symbolic step in embracing the country&rsquo;s Kurdish population by visiting the country&rsquo;s southeastern province of Diyarbakir, the stronghold of the Kurdish political movement, and meeting with Kurdish mayors, who were dismissed in a crackdown on the group by the Turkish government last week.

“In a place where elected officials do not leave offices via elections, there can be neither democracy nor the rule of law. The will of the people reflected in ballot boxes is not something that some in power can declare valid or invalid according to their own wishes,” left-wing news site Duvar quoted Imamoglu as saying in Diyarbakır.

The Turkish Interior Ministry last week removed the mayors of Diyarbakir, Van, and Mardin, who were elected from the predominantly-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in local polls on March 31. The government appointed the governors of those provinces temporarily as new mayors.

“I have brought you the greetings of 16 million people from Istanbul. I hope that they put an end to this lawlessness soon, ‘’ Imamoglu told the dismissed mayor of Diyarbakir, Selcuk Mizrakli and Mardin, Ahmet Turk.

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