Turkish election body reinstates Kurdish mayor following protests

Turkey's election authority on Wednesday reversed a local body decision to block a newly elected pro-Kurdish party mayor from taking his post following a party appeal, the state news agency Anadolu reported.

The decision followed demonstrations and arrests in several Turkish cities. Police used force to disperse protesters in certain places, according to local media, including the Cumhuriyet newspaper.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) in Ankara decided that Abdullah Zeydan, from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), get his mandate as mayor of south-eastern Van province, Anadolu reported.

DEM welcomed the decision. The move comes "thanks to the resistance of the Kurdish people, our comrades, friends, and the democratic public," the party posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

DEM's Zeydan was initially denied his mayoral mandate even though he was elected mayor in Sunday's local elections with around 55% of the vote, his party said.

The mayoral post instead was to be given to a candidate from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who came in second at around 27%.

The local electoral authority contended that Zeydan has a criminal record and should not have stood for election, according to Anadolu.

Zeydan's party says he was informed about the decision only after the vote on Sunday.

Observers feared the incident could trigger a new wave of mass dismissals of pro-Kurdish local politicians, reminiscent of 2019.

The pro-Kurdish party, then under the name HDP, had won 65 mayoral positions in the 2019 local vote, however the government removed a majority of them from office due to alleged terrorism ties.