One of the co-mayors of Mardin’s Nusaybin district was detained for the second time on Monday over her earlier statements on a declaration of “self-governance” in the district in protest of the government’s operations against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Nusaybin Co-mayor Sara Kaya, who is a member of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), and was first detained last Friday, was detained again on Monday after the Mardin Prosecutor’s Office appealed an earlier court decision granting her release.

So-called 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 the police in Silopi that killed four people, including a policeman. The Yüksekova district in the southeastern province of Hakkari and the Varto and Bulanık districts of Muş followed suit soon after.

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