The co-mayors of the Hakkari Municipality were detained in an operation on Thursday, one police launched after claims of a declaration of autonomy in the municipality.

The co-mayors — Dilek Hatipoğlu and Nurullah Çiftçi –– were detained early on Thursday.

The co-mayors of the Sur and Silvan districts of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır have also been detained. Sur Co-mayors Seyid Narin and Fatma Şık Barut, Silvan Co-mayors Yüksel Bodakçı and Melikşah Teke, and pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) official Ali Rıza Çiçek were detained in operations staged in Diyarbakır on Wednesday.

people’s assemblies in the southeastern districts of Silopi, Cizre and Nusaybin, as well as in the province of Şırnak, declared “self-governance” on Aug. 10, following clashes between terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) supporters and police in Silopi that killed four people, including a police officer. The Yüksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari and the Varto and Bulanık districts of Muş followed suit soon thereafter.

In a statement on Aug. 12, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that encompasses the PKK, said the assemblies in Silopi, Cizre, Nusaybin and Şırnak have announced that they do not recognize any state institution, have declared autonomy and “exercise their legitimate right to self-defense if [their] self-governance is attacked.”

Source: Zaman