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Lawmakers brawl in Turkish parliament over pro-Kurdish mayor’s detention
Lawmakers from Turkiye’s ruling AK Party and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party brawled in parliament’s general assembly on Tuesday over the detention and replacement of a DEM Party mayor in southeast Turkiye. On Monday, police detained Mehmet Siddik Akis, mayor of the southeastern Hakkari province bordering Iran and Iraq, just two months after he won power in local elections. Turkiye’s Interior Ministry said Akis played a high-level role within the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militia, while replacing him with the state governor. After the 2019 municipal elections, Turkiye detained virtually all ... (full story)