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Only days before Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), visited the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakır (Amed) to reconcile with the Kurdish voter, a municipal government run by CHP fired one of the workers for posting a picture of the jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş.
The municipal government of Turkey’s northwestern province of Bolu forced a cleaning worker to resign after a local newspaper printed the worker’s social media post sharing a photo of Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), reported Duvar.
The newspaper earlier said on the 24th of February that the worker’s post, named Mahire Yentür, was proof of Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan’s support for HDP. The newspaper also claimed that Yentür was constantly making propaganda for the HDP and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
After she was forced to resign, Yentür told about the pressure she was subjected to by other municipality employees.
“I was at the municipality when I first saw the report on the newspaper (…) Later, I was branded as a terrorist among my colleagues. A photo post destroyed me,” she said, adding:
“People at the municipality said, ‘It’s better if you quit your job.’ I had to resign so that my family and relatives would not be harmed. I have nothing to do with HDP, I do not have a membership. I tried to express myself but no one listened to me. All my friends turned against me. I can’t even go out now.”
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, an MP for HDP and a prominent human rights defender, reacted to the incident on Twitter.
He said:
“Mahire Yentür is a cleaning worker, a Kurdish citizen. The Bolu Municipality dismissed her from her post. And her offence? Sharing Selahattin Demirtaş’s photo!!! Not only was she fired, but she was also subjected to social isolation!”
