A new book tells the story of Turkish cities reborn under new leadership after the removal of mayors linked to the PKK, a major terrorist group.
Peaceful Cities (Huzurlu Sehirler), published on Tuesday by Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s premier news agency, tells how 93 cities in Turkey’s east and southeast got rid of their PKK-linked mayors and then pursued the renovations of roads, mosques, playgrounds, and buildings of state institutions and organizations.
The cities had mayors from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which Turkey’s government has accused of being a front for the terrorist PKK. Under the HDP mayors, city funds were diverted to fund PKK terrorism, officials charged.
“In addition to basic municipal services, critical work was done to the re-establish an environment of trust, one which was abolished by the terrorist threat,” Senol Kazanci, the agency’s director general, says in the book’s preface.
Turkey fought against the so-called “self-governance” declared by some 93 municipalities in 2015 by putting them under Interior Ministry trusteeships in September 2016, he said.
“The book contains a general review of the positive social, cultural and economic developments with the environment of trust provided by the Interior Ministry in municipalities where the will of the people had been hijacked by terrorism,” Kazanci added.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including numerous women and children.
Founded in 1920, Anadolu Agency has long proven its reputation for professionalism and accurate news reporting in nearly a dozen languages, including Turkish, English, Arabic, Russian, French, and Persian.
