rudaw.net | By Karwan Faidhi Dri | 26/06/2020

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Turkish court has sentenced 68 Kurdish politicians and civil activists, including a former mayor, to up to ten years in prison for their alleged links to an umbrella group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

A total of 79 people were tried by a court in Malatya province on Wednesday based on charges of membership of a terrorist organization. Eleven of them were acquitted while 68 others were found guilty, T24reported.

Turkey has detained and sentenced scores of Kurdish politicians, activists and journalists in the last decade for their alleged links to the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group of a number of parties, including the PKK, which is a deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara. They have all faced terror-related charges. 

The cases against the defendants from Cizre, in the Kurdish province of Sirnak province, were launched in 2011. The judges are said to be affiliated to the Fethullah Gulen movement, also known as FETO, which was accused by Ankara for orchestrating the 2016 failed coup attempt. 

One of those sentenced on Wednesday is Mehmet Zirig,who was elected mayor of Cizre in March 2019’s local elections on the ticket of the pro-Kurdish, leftist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). However, he wasremoved from his position in October of the same year for alleged links to the PKK.   
 
Zirig lashed out at the ruling, claiming that his sentencing proves that the ruling Justice and Development Party, which once enjoyed good relations with Gulen’s movement, still enjoy close ties.  

“I have been sentenced to six years and three months for the KCK Cizre case which was launched by FETO [linked] prosecutors. This decision proves that the FETO-AKP partnership continues. Neither FETO nor the Palace’s [Turkish presidency] one-man regime can make us retreat from our struggle,” he tweeted.

Most of the HDP’s 59 mayors have been removed from office and replaced by pro-government administrators, or trustees. Some of the  removed politicians have been detained, tried, and convicted for their alleged links to the PKK, an armed group which struggles for Kurdish cultural and political rights. 

Six HDP mayor-elects were not permitted to even begin their term in office despite their victory in the March 2019 local elections.

Leyla Guven, a veteran Kurdish politician, was impeached in early June for a KCK-related case which dates back to 2009. She was later detained but released soon after, having previously served over six years in jail. 

Scores of HDP officials, members and supporters have been detained or officially arrested for similar terror charges, including co-chairs Selahttin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.