Turkey The government expands an investigation into the employees of the municipality of Istanbul

The Turkish government on Thursday accepted an indictment against suspicions of a religious association, in a case that could have political and legal repercussions for Turkey. Municipality of Istanbul handled by opponents.

On February 18, the trial begins against 23 people linked to the Association of Religious Scholars for Aid and Mutual Solidarity (Diadir) for alleged links with Kurdish militants. Nine of the defendants are in custody and some of them are said to work for the Istanbul municipality.

The indictment was announced on Sunday, as was the investigation by the Interior Ministry, against hundreds of municipal employees for alleged terrorist ties, which raised fears that the government was preparing to target the famous mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu. , considered a potential rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the scheduled 2023 elections.

The 335-page indictment, accepted by court on Thursday, says the association has followed alleged orders from Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), to establish an alternative religious entity to official religious body of Turkey to obtain the support of Kurdish clerics. The note claims that the association has also worked to undermine Turkey’s sovereignty over its territory since 2013 and has supported an “independent Kurdistan”.

For its part, the Interior Ministry announced Sunday that it had opened a “special investigation” against 557 employees of the Istanbul municipality and related companies, accusing them of links with terrorist groups.

The investigation also includes municipal employees allegedly recruited through reports from the religious association.

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