Two more elected HDP officials suspended in Turkey
Two elected officials were suspended over the weekend as pressure continues on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party in Turkey.
![MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-TURKEY Riot police block the entrance of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) office in order to prevent party members to go out for a demonstration in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, January 21, 2018. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar - RC1C7BD2F700](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2019/08/RTX4GR89.jpg/RTX4GR89.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=C_fFCBqE)
An elected official hasn’t run Caldiran, a town of 67,000 people near Turkey’s border with Iran, since February 2017.
That’s when the former co-mayor, Faruk Demir, was dismissed by presidential decree and placed in pre-trial detention for 11 months on terror charges. A state-appointed trustee took over municipal functions in Caldiran as in nearly 100 other municipalities — most of which were run by officials affiliated with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) — that were impacted during mass purges stemming from a 2016 coup attempt.