The clashes across the country occurred after the disqualification of a Kurdish politician
Riots broke out in several Turkish cities on Tuesday night after the authorities invalidated the victory of Kurdish politician Abdullah Zeydan in a mayoral election.
On Sunday, Zeydan was elected to serve as the mayor of the eastern city of Van. Two days later, a local electoral board disqualified him, citing his past criminal conviction on the charges of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Türkiye considers a terrorist group.
In 2016, Zeydan was sent to prison a year later for “abetting” and “propagandizing” for the PKK. He was released in 2022. According to the prosecutors, his three-year ban to run for office has not yet expired, which makes him ineligible to serve as mayor.
Zeydan’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) slammed the disqualification as “a political coup.” The politician’s supporters took to the streets, with some launching fireworks and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police officers, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Some rioters erected barricades and set them on fire.
🔴Supporters of the terrorist organization PKK in Van set fire to the place. They started throwing molotovs at the apartment buildings, many workplaces were plundered and looted!! ️ Riot police intervene. pic.twitter.com/nvByQjI1ZK
— Online News Center (@onlinehabermrkz) April 2, 2024
The disturbances were reported in Van and other eastern cities, as well as in Adana in the south and Izmir on the Aegean coast.
#Last minute DEM Party members took to the streets in Batman, chanted ‘biji apo’ slogans, broke the windows of shopkeepers’ workplaces and started clashing with the police!! pic.twitter.com/Hoc5BqW2Fk
— Online News Center (@onlinehabermrkz) April 2, 2024
A total of 89 people have been detained in the cities of Van, Hakkari, Batman, Siirt, Sirnak and Izmir, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
⚠️BREAKING NEWS⚠️ SOLDIERS LANDED IN THE CITY..⚠️Soldiers landed in the city to intervene in the events in Hakkari⚠️ pic.twitter.com/KobDMI9YDA
— Online News Center (@onlinehabermrkz) April 2, 2024
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