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Ousted HDP mayors react as Erdogan promises judicial action

Three dismissed opposition mayors responded as the Turkish president said new judicial actions would address their alleged terror activities in the upcoming parliamentary session.
Ahmet Turk, 74, a veteran Kurdish politician, welcomes guests at his home after he was released from prison where he was held for more than two months as part of a terrorism investigation, in Kiziltepe, a town in southeastern province of Mardin, February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar - RC1999B22780

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan answered questions Wednesday night while flying back from a visit to Russia, telling reporters that new judicial actions would be opened into recently dismissed mayors with the nation’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

On Aug. 19, the HDP mayors of the southeastern cities of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van were suspended for alleged links to terror organizations and allegedly misusing municipal funds to support the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group that has been waging war against the Turkish state since the 1980s.

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