Mayor linked to terror probe detained in eastern Turkey

By Haydar Toprakci, Fatma Ciray and Zekeriya Gunes

SIIRT, Turkey

A Turkish court has remanded the mayor of the southeastern Turkish city of Siirt on Wednesday evening as part of a terror-linked probe, a judicial source said.

Police took the mayor into custody early Wednesday as part of a wave of arrests of political figures accused of links to the PKK terrorist organization across three provinces.

Mayor Tuncer Bakirhan, a member of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the sister party of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was arrested on a warrant issued by the Siirt Public Prosecutor's Office as part of an investigation into the PKK, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to media.

Police also searched Bakirhan's home and his municipality office.

In Agri province, police arrested the heads of the HDP and the DBP in Patnos district on Wednesday, a police official in the eastern province said.

According to the official, who spoke under similar condition of anonymity, Vahyettin Ilgun, from the HDP, and the DBP's Omer Narcin were accused of membership of a terrorist organization and making terrorist propaganda.

Meanwhile, in Tunceli another DBP mayor, Mehmet Ali Bul, was also arrested as part of an anti-terrorism investigation.

Bul, who heads the provincial capital’s municipality, was among 14 arrested on the orders of the Tunceli Public Prosecutor's Office as part of a probe into the PKK.

All 14 suspects refused to testify to police and were later sent to court to be questioned.

Last month, the BDP co-mayors of Diyarbakir, Gulten Kisanak and Firat Anli, were remanded in custody pending trial on terrorism offences. Prosecutors said Kisanak was arrested for being a member of an armed terrorist group.

Earlier this month, 13 lawmakers from the HDP were arrested. Ten, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, are in custody awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year and has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,100 security force members and civilians, including women and children.

Around 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in the same period.