Turkish police detain another HDP mayor in southeast

Duvar English/Reuters

Turkish authorities on Dec. 20 detained a mayor from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, the latest in a crackdown on mayors from the party since elections this year.

Filiz Buluttekin, co-mayor of Diyarbakır's Sur district, was detained early in the day, as part of an ongoing "terror investigation" into her.

Two municipal council members was also detained on the same day.

The HDP said police raided Buluttekin's home and the party shared images on Twitter showing blockades around the Sur municipality building.

Sertaç Buluttekin, the mayor's lawyer and family member, told Reuters that Filiz Buluttekin said police laid her, her son and her husband on the ground during the raid and pointed guns at them.

HDP lawmakers and its mayors are accused by Turkish authorities of having links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - a group designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, the U.S. and the European Union.

Ankara has appointed acting mayors to 31 HDP municipalities in southeastern cities and districts since March elections, according to the HDP, and 23 of the HDP's co-mayors are currently jailed pending trial.

The lawyer said details of the accusations against the mayor were unknown because the investigation file was confidential.

State-run Anadolu Agency said investigations were being conducted against Buluttekin on charges of terrorism propaganda, insulting the Turkish people, the government and parliament.

It said Buluttekin had attended the funerals of PKK militants and joined a press conference regarding PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, jailed since 1999.

The HDP governs many cities in the southeast of Turkey and typically appoints one male and one female co-mayor to promote gender equality.

Former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ have both been jailed since Nov. 4, 2016 on terrorism charges.