Hundreds of people are protesting in Turkey against the arrest of the mayor due to alleged terrorist links

Hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul to protest the arrest and removal from office of a mayor from Turkey’s main opposition party for alleged links to a banned Kurdish militant group.

Ahmet Özer, the mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained by anti-terrorist police on Wednesday over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

On Thursday, the government replaced Özer with deputy governor of Istanbul, a move CHP leader Özgür Özel and other politicians described as a “coup”.

Demonstrators filled a square in Esenyurt, a western suburb on the European side of Istanbul, after the government banned a rally outside the municipality building.

Some carried signs reading “We want an elected mayor, not an appointed mayor” and called for the resignation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Özer, 64, is a former university student from Van in eastern Turkey.

He was elected mayor of Esenyurt in the March local elections.

The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the Istanbul General Prosecutor’s Office said an investigation showed that Özer had been in contact with PKK figures for more than 10 years.

His township home, vehicle and office were searched on Wednesday as part of the investigation.

Özer’s arrest follows an attack on the headquarters of the Turkish defense company TUSAS in Ankara on October 24, in which five people died. The PKK claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, Türkiye is debating a tentative peace process to end a 40-year conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state that has left tens of thousands dead.

The PKK initially sought to establish an independent Kurdish state, but changed its goals in the 1990s to demand increased political and cultural rights for Turkey’s Kurds.

Turkey’s Western allies, including the US and the EU, list the PKK as a terrorist organization.