DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey appointed new administrators in two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday after removing their elected mayors over suspected links to militants, triggering pockets of protest in its volatile southeastern region bordering Syria and Iraq.

Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside local government buildings in Suruc on the Syrian border as new administrators took over, security sources said. There were smaller protests elsewhere in the town.

There were also disturbances in the main regional city of Diyarbarkir and in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, where police entered the municipality building and unfurled a large red Turkish flag, taking down the white local government flags that had previously flown.

President Tayyip Erdogan said this week the campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkey’s largest ever. The removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.

The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants. It decried the move as an “administrative coup”.

“No democratic state can or will allow mayors and MPs to use municipality resources to finance terrorist organisations,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter. “Being an elected official isn’t a licence to commit crimes.”

Turkey’s battle against the PKK resumed with a new intensity after a ceasefire collapsed last year and with attempts by Kurdish groups in Syria’s war to carve out an autonomous Kurdish enclave on Turkey’s border.

In a message to mark the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday, Erdogan said the PKK had been trying to step up attacks since a failed military coup in July and that they aimed to disrupt Turkish military operations in Syria.

The U.S. embassy said it was concerned by reports of clashes in the southeast and that while it supported Turkey’s right to combat terrorism, it was important to respect the right to peaceful protest.

A riot police officer stands guard in front of Sur municipality office, following the removal of the local mayor from office after he was deemed to support Kurdish militants, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, September 11, 2016. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar

“We hope that any appointment of trustees will be temporary and that local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law,” it said.

WESTERN CONCERN

The crackdown comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating the attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement.

The mayors of four other municipalities, three from the ruling AK Party and one from the nationalist MHP opposition, were also replaced over alleged links to what the authorities call the “Gulen Terror Organisation”, or FETO.

The interior ministry said the 28 mayors, 12 of whom are formally under arrest, were under investigation for providing “assistance and support” to the PKK and to Gulen’s organization.

Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 100,000 people since the failed coup. At least 40,000 people have been detained on suspicion of links to Gulen’s network.

The crackdown has raised concern from rights groups and Western allies who fear Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail all dissent, and intensify his actions against suspected Kurdish militant sympathizers.

Turkish officials say the moves are justified by the extent of the threat to the state.

The HDP, which says it promotes a negotiated end to the PKK insurgency, said it did not recognize the legitimacy of the mayors’ removal.

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“This illegal and arbitrary stance will result in the deepening of current problems in Kurdish cities, and the Kurdish issue becoming unresolvable,” it said in a statement.

Tensions in the southeast had already been heightened since Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria two and half weeks ago dubbed “Operation Euphrates Shield”.

The operation aims to push Islamic State fighters back from the border and prevent Kurdish militia fighters seizing ground in their wake. Turkey views the Kurdish militia as an extension of the PKK and fears that Kurdish gains there will fuel separatist sentiment on its own soil.</s>ISTANBUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Kurdish militants claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a car bombing in Turkey's southeastern city of Van a day earlier and said it was partly a response to the removal from office of two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities.

The blast, close to local government offices, wounded around 50 people, including four police officers and four Iranian citizens thought to have been visiting during the Muslim Eid holiday, officials said.

The bombing came a day after Turkey appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities, most of them in the largely-Kurdish southeast, after removing their mayors over suspected militant links, triggering protests.

Southeastern Turkey has suffered numerous bombings since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.

The claim of responsibility, on a website close to the PKK, said the attack in Van was a retaliation for the killing by security forces of Kurdish youths and the removal of the mayors "in disregard of the Kurdish people's will."

The PKK is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union, as well as by Ankara.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey had evidence the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner.

Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals. (Reporting by Seda Sezer; Writing by Nick Tattersall)</s>ISTANBUL -- Turkey announced Sunday that it had replaced 28 elected municipal and district mayors in several predominantly Kurdish towns in the country's east and southeast, saying the leaders are suspected of colluding with groups the government considers terrorist organizations.

The move led to protests that police later dispersed using water cannons and tear gas.

The Interior Ministry said the decision to remove the mayors was in line with a governmental decree enacted in the wake of a failed military coup.

Turkey declared a state of emergency after the July 15 coup attempt, allowing the government to rule by decree. It has since suspended tens of thousands of people from government jobs over suspected links to terrorist organizations.

Of the 28 mayors who were replaced, 24 are suspected of ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, and four are thought to be linked to the movement led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the government says is responsible for the abortive coup that left more than 270 people dead.

The Interior Ministry said in its statement that when local governments "come under the influence of terrorist organizations, it is the state's primary duty to take precautions against those who have usurped the people's will."

"Being an elected official isn't a license to commit crimes," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote on Twitter. "If mayors and town councilors finance terrorism by transferring public funds allocated to them to serve the people ... they lose their democratic legitimacy."

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara expressed concern over the government's actions, saying in a statement that it hoped the substitute office-holders who took up their new posts Sunday would be temporary and that "local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law."

Three of the 28 officials are members of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party; one belongs to the Nationalist Movement Party. The rest belong to pro-Kurdish parties.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party condemned the appointments as a "coup by trustees" that violates the Turkish constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights.

"This unlawful and arbitrary action will only deepen existing problems in Kurdish towns and cause the Kurdish issue to be even more unsolvable," the party said in a statement.

The main opposition Republican People's Party also condemned the move. Senior party members spoke to reporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, where they called the appointments unlawful and said they would be taking the decision to Turkey's constitutional court.

Addressing the nation Sunday for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was determined to "save Turkey from the PKK scourge," using an acronym for the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"Like the Gulen movement, the PKK cannot possibly withstand the power of the people and the strength of the state," Erdogan said in a video statement.

The private Dogan news agency reported that a group of about 200 people gathered in front of city hall in the southeastern town of Suruc to protest the government-installed officials and were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons. A protest in front of Batman city hall was broken up in the same way.

Four people, including a deputy mayor, were briefly detained in a minor skirmish outside city hall in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Co-Mayor Fatma Yildiz, who was replaced Sunday morning, said the decision was "a blow against the will of the people," Dogan reported.

Turkish media reported that Internet and electricity were out in the affected cities in the morning, but no official reason was given.

Also on Sunday, about 40 prominent academics and authors from around the world urged Turkey's government to end what they say is the persecution of the country's writers and professors who voice a differing point of view.

In an open letter released Sunday, academics and authors including Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and British Booker Prize winner John Berger called on supporters to protest what they said is the Turkish government's "vendetta" against its brightest thinkers.

They said the failed coup shouldn't be used as a pretext for a "[Joe] McCarthy-style witch hunt," referring to the Wisconsin senator who led an anti-communism crusade in the 1950s.

The letter said the group was particularly disturbed by the detention of novelist Ahmet Altan and his brother Mehmet Altan, an economics professor, who Turkey accused of transmitting subliminal messages to rally coup supporters on TV the night before the coup attempt.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.</s>ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's president says the dismissal of 28 elected municipal and district mayors in several predominantly Kurdish towns in the country's east and southeast was overdue.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after prayers at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday Monday that it should have been done earlier in line with his own wishes.

The removed officials, replaced by government-appointed deputy and district governors, are suspected of colluding with groups the Turkish government considers terrorist organizations.

Turkey's Interior Ministry said the decision was in line with the state of emergency decreed after the failed July 15 military coup attempt.</s>ISTANBUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey has evidence that mayors removed from two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities had sent support to Kurdish militants, and said they should have been stripped of office sooner.

Turkey appointed new administrators in the 24 Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday, triggering pockets of protest in parts of the largely-Kurdish southeast. The main pro-Kurdish opposition party called it an "administrative coup".

"It is a step taken too late in my opinion. It should have been taken sooner, and it was my advice to do so earlier," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after attending prayers to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

"They sent the support they received to the mountains, but this has all been discovered," Erdogan said, referring to Kurdish militant bases in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. "Our government took this decision based on all of this evidence."

Erdogan said last week that the campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkey's largest ever and that the removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.

The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants. It said it did not recognise the legitimacy of the mayors' removal.

The U.S. embassy said on Sunday that while it supported Turkey's right to combat terrorism, it hoped the appointment of government administrators would be temporary and that local citizens could soon choose new representatives.

The United States and European Union both list the PKK as a terrorist organisation. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Dominic Evans)</s>(CNN) Turkey's government replaced 28 mayors, whom the Interior Ministry accuses of terrorist ties, with trustees, sparking demonstrations and international concern.

The mayors are the latest to find themselves targeted in President Recep Erdogan's post-coup state of emergency, enacted in July.

According to the 10-day-old Decree Law No. 674, the government is allowed to replace mayors and city council members who "have been actively engaged in acts of terrorism and openly providing support to terrorism," an Interior Ministry statement said.

Four of the mayors are accused of having ties to the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization, which Erdogan has claimed was behind the failed coup attempt, and 24 were allegedly linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency

The mayors, who include 24 district mayors, two provincial mayors and two county mayors, most of them from the eastern portion of the country, are being prosecuted on charges of assisting the two groups, the Interior Ministry said. Twelve of the mayors have been arrested, its statement said.

"It doesn't undoubtedly comply with the law for those elected by the public vote to abuse the will of nation to commit crimes against the public," the statement said. "The resources created by the taxes honored by our citizens and the political will aroused by their votes cannot be utilized for the benefit of terrorist organizations."

Protests also erupted at four municipalities in Batman Province, where police deployed tear gas and water cannons, and in the Suruc district of Sanliurfa Province, the paper reported. All three provinces are in Turkey's southeast, along its border with Syria and Iraq.

The People's Democratic Party called the mayoral substitutions a disregard of voters' will and said they represented a violation of international law, Hurriyet reported. The secular main opposition Republican People's Party, which supported Erdogan in the coup attempt but not his subsequent emergency declaration, also registered its displeasure, calling it a "coup" against the Grand National Assembly, the newspaper said.

The U.S. Embassy, too, issued a "statement of concern." While Turkish authorities conduct their investigations, the statement said, "we note the importance of respect for judicial due process and individual rights, including the right of peaceful political expression."

The embassy also expressed hope that the trustees would serve only temporarily and that citizens would soon be able to elect new officials.

The mayors represent a small fraction of people fired or arrested since the July 15 coup attempt that killed at least 240 people and 40 coup plotters.

A three-month state of emergency granted Erdogan sweeping powers, and a presidential decree stated suspects can be detained for as long as 30 days without charge, and the government can listen in on all conversations they have with their attorneys. Previously, suspects could be held only 24 hours, or four days in special circumstances.

Parliament member Sebahat Tuncel, a Kurd, said Erdogan's Justice and Development Party had started "a war against Kurds," and said the government has no evidence the mayors, some of whom were elected by overwhelming majorities, had any ties to terrorism. She expressed fear that more Kurds would lose their jobs amid Erdogan's crackdown.

"This is a political coup and ethnic cleansing," she said. "(More than 11,000) Kurdish educators lost their jobs recently. We are hearing that the same thing will happen to our people who are working at the health care industry."</s>ISTANBUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Turkey has proof that mayors removed from two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday had sent support to Kurdish militants and they should have been stripped of office sooner, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul after attending prayers, Erdogan said any municipality which had supported militants would have to pay the price.

Turkey appointed new administrators in the 24 Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday, triggering pockets of protest in its largely-Kurdish southeastern region bordering Syria and Iraq. The pro-Kurdish opposition called it an "administrative coup".</s>The mayors are the latest to find themselves targeted in President Recep Erdogan's post-coup state of emergency, enacted in July.

According to the 10-day-old Decree Law No. 674, the government is allowed to replace mayors and city council members who "have been actively engaged in acts of terrorism and openly providing support to terrorism," an Interior Ministry statement said.

Four of the mayors are accused of having ties to the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization, which Erdogan has claimed was behind the failed coup attempt, and 24 were allegedly linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency

The mayors, who include 24 district mayors, two provincial mayors and two county mayors, most of them from the eastern portion of the country, are being prosecuted on charges of assisting the two groups, the Interior Ministry said. Twelve of the mayors have been arrested, its statement said.</s>Kurdish militant group says it was behind car bombing in Turkey's Van

ISTANBUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Kurdish militants on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a car bombing in Turkey's southeastern city of Van a day earlier and said it was a response to the removal from office of two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities.

The blast, close to local government offices, wounded around 50 people, including four police officers and four Iranian citizens thought to have been visiting during the Muslim Eid holiday, officials said.

The claim of responsibility was posted on a website close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group which has been used to claim previous attacks in Turkey. (Reporting by Seda Sezer; Writing by Nick Tattersall)</s>Suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in Turkey's southeastern city of Van on Monday, wounding scores of people, a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of office.

The blast hit some 200 metres from the Van provincial governor's office, security sources said, ripping through the city's central district and setting buildings and cars aflame. Police officials said 27 people were wounded but no one died.

Southeastern Turkey has suffered repeated bombings and other attacks since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.

Security sources said they suspected the PKK was behind the Van bombing and that an operation had been launched to pursue the suspected militants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

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The blast tore the front off a four-storey building. Footage from the Dogan news agency showed water cannon trying to douse flames on the street opposite. The district, normally busy, was more empty of traffic on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Burhan Kayaturk, a local member of parliament from the AKP, said the blast had targeted the ruling AK Party's offices, but that they were well-secured and had not been badly damaged.

Turkey appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities mostly in the southeast on Sunday after removing their mayors over suspected PKK links, triggering protests. Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey had evidence that the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants, and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner.

The pro-Kurdish opposition party, the third-largest in the national parliament, decried what it said was an "administrative coup" and said the move was illegal.
Turkish authorities remove two dozen elected Kurdish mayors in southeast Turkey.