Türk, 83, used to be got rid of from his publish by way of the inner ministry in November 2024, marking the 3rd time he were ousted as mayor. The ministry cited an ongoing trial on the Ankara 14th Top Prison Court docket as justification for the transfer, announcing he used to be being prosecuted for “disseminating terrorist propaganda.”
The case stemmed from a speech Türk gave within the southeastern province of Siirt in March 2011, for which prosecutors accused him of selling the outlawed Kurdistan Staff’ Birthday party (PKK), designated as a 15 may organization by way of Turkey and its Western allies. The trial started in 2022.
Türk’s attorneys attended the general listening to on the Ankara court docket on Thursday by way of video hyperlink from the Mardin Courthouse.
The prosecutor asked a conviction, however Türk’s attorneys argued that the case used to be illegal, noting that the Siirt Leader Public Prosecutor’s Place of work had issued a choice of non-prosecution in 2014 at the identical report.
In step with Mezopotamya the court docket dominated that Türk’s remarks didn’t represent against the law, discovering that his phrases fell throughout the limits of freedom of expression in a democratic society, leading to his acquittal.
The ministry had in the past referred to this example when appointing a trustee to switch Türk, announcing on the time that he used to be being attempted for “spreading terrorist propaganda.”
In his 2011 speech, Türk had praised what he described because the Kurdish other people’s “struggle for freedom. “Thousands have sacrificed their lives for this cause. Today, people across Kurdistan’s cities, towns and villages are on their feet for our heroic martyrs,” he mentioned, relating to PKK militants who misplaced their lives within the decades-long war with Turkey.
The court docket’s determination comes at a time of ongoing peace talks with the PKK aimed toward resolving the armed war, which has claimed greater than 40,000 lives for the reason that PKK took up hands in 1984.
Türk visited jailed PKK chief Abdullah Öcalan in jail on İmralı Island as a member of a DEM Birthday party delegation previous this 12 months as a part of ongoing peace efforts with the PKK. In February Öcalan made a historical name to the PKK, urging it to put down its guns and disband. The militants introduced that they’d act consistent with Öcalan’s name and burned their guns in northern Iraq as a symbolic first step on July 30.
Pervin Buldan (R), an MP from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Birthday party (DEM Birthday party), reads a observation from jailed Kurdish chief Abdullah Öcalan throughout a press convention held by way of DEM Birthday party officers in İstanbul on February 27. Öcalan had known as for his Kurdish militant workforce to put down its guns and dissolve itself within the landmark declaration learn out in İstanbul. (Photograph by way of Ozan KOSE / AFP)
In an previous interview Türk mentioned he hostile being reinstated whilst trustees remained answerable for opposition-controlled municipalities, relating to an ongoing crackdown at the primary opposition Republican Folks’s Birthday party (CHP).
“I would not want to be reinstated as long as trustees are being appointed to CHP-run municipalities. All trustee appointments should be lifted together,” he mentioned.
The continuing peace talks have raised the possibility of the reinstatement to workplace of the DEM Birthday party mayors who had been got rid of on terrorism-related accusations following their election within the March 2024 native elections.
Dozens of pro-Kurdish mayors from the DEM Birthday party’s predecessors had been got rid of from their posts on equivalent fees up to now.
