"It's time to settle accounts with the municipalities supporting terrorism," the Hürriyet Daily News quoted Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as saying. "We'll ask these local governors to pay the price for not using the state means given to them for the people."
Yildirim also said that the government plans to put forward a bill that would prevent local authorities from sponsoring the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). He did not provide further details.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to Karayalçın, is most likely planning to use these latest reforms to fully limit the autonomy of municipal authorities. "I think that the AKP will cover all provinces and not only south eastern regions," he said.
On Tuesday, Yildirim told the Turkish parliament that the military part of the anti-PKK offensive was over. The reform targeting local authorities, who allegedly sponsor militants, is the second stage of this operation.
The Prime Minister's remarks are apparently "a new campaign to influence public opinion," Karayalçın observed. Serious accusations cannot be made without any evidence provided, he added. "If no facts are presented, then one should question the true intensions of those, who made the statement."
Critics have accused President Erdogan of turning Turkey into an autocratic state. These developments seem to indicate that the Turkish strongman is tightening his grip on power.
