İmamoğlu visited the suspended mayors of Diyarbakır, Selçuk Mızraklı, and Mardin, Ahmet Türk, Van Mayor Bedia Özgökçe Ertan whom were suspended from their duty.
The three mayors for HDP have been temporarily replaced by government-appointed provincial governors, after the interior ministry accused them of using their position to benefit PKK terrorist organization.
“We dismissed these three, and then the newly elected mayor of Turkey’s biggest city (Istanbul) went running to defend them. They’ve never denied, to this day, having a connection to the PKK.”
The dismissals also revived speculation that the AKP government could take similar measures to reclaim major cities including Istanbul and Ankara that it lost to the opposition in this year’s local elections.
Before the March 31 local elections, the president said his government would dismiss mayors it saw as PKK-linked.
“The mayor of Istanbul rubs shoulders with those who have links with terrorism in Diyarbakır … “Those who cannot take up a position against terrorism cannot be a mayor or a politician," Erdoğan said on Sunday.
Echoing Erdoğan’s words on Tuesday, the interior minister said İmamoğlu would pay a heavy price if he continued to involve himself in national politics.
“Do your job, we can deal nicely with you, but if you continue busying yourself in other affairs we’re going to ruin you,” Soylu said.
Politicians from İmamoğlu’s secularist main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were quick to hit back after Soylu’s statements, with the party’s deputy chairman Seyit Torun slamming the unelected minister for threatening an elected official.
“I’m inviting you to show some respect to the national will and the decision of the people,” Torun said in a tweet.