Lawmakers from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), trade unions, as well as doctors’ and architects’ associations took part in a rally to commemorate World Peace Day in Istanbul’s Kartal district, BBC Turkish reported.
Kurdish and leftist groups in Turkey celebrate World Peace Day on September 1, while the day is observed around the world on September 21.
Members of the HDP carried banners protesting the dismissal of Kurdish mayors from the provinces of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van provinces, calling the move by the Turkish government "a coup against peace."
Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli, Ahmet Turk and Bedia Ozgokce Ertan were dismissed on August 19 over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at war in Turkey for three decades, just three months after being elected to office in March.
Human rights defender and the President of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, Sebnem Korur Fincanci, along with author Orhan Alkaya, read a joint statement to mark the day.
The statement highlighted the country’s economic crisis and ecological destruction and criticised the policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
A letter by the former mayor of Mardin, Turk, was read during the rally, BBC Turkish said.
The leader of Turkey’s main opposition CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, released a statement on the occasion of World Peace Day, calling for the peaceful coexistence of the people of Turkey.
"We want peace in the world, we believe that all people are brothers [and sisters]. We want to live in tranquillity and peace in our country," Kilicdaroglu said on Twitter.
CHP Deputy Chairman and Ankara lawmaker Yildirim Kaya in a written statement called on armed groups to lay down their weapons.
"This is my call to those who are carrying an armed struggle and those who believe that weapons will bring about a solution. There can be no peace in the shade of weapons. Put your weapons down,’’ Kaya said in an apparent reference to the outlawed PKK.
HDP co-chair Sezai Temelli arrived in Diyarbakir to take part in a rally to be held in the Kurdish-majority province, where there has been an ongoing protest against the dismissal of mayors in the region last month.
‘’We have been resisting for 14 days. We were faced with a coup in this country 14 days ago. This government has lost all its legitimacy by signing its name to this lawlessness,’’ BBC Turkish quoted Temelli as saying.
In Van province, women took part in a rally, attended by members of HDP and union organisations, donning white dresses and headscarves, it said.
Hundreds took part in rallies in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces of Van and Hakkari, Gazete Karinca reported.
The crowds protested the dismissal of Kurdish mayors in the southeastern town of Sirnak in front of the HDP headquarters, chanting “Long live peace.”
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