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Turkey’s crackdown on mayors amounts to coup, says opposition party

The arrest last week of five mayors from the Peoples’ Democratic Party leaves it with control of just a fifth of the cities it won in an election last year.

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s second-biggest opposition party has accused the government of carrying out a “coup” against elected officials after another five of its mayors were sacked last week, part of a long-running clampdown that has crippled the pro-Kurdish party in local politics.

The Interior Ministry dismissed the mayors from the leftist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Friday, accusing them of ties with terrorists, and appointed state trustees in their place. All five are now in detention.

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