ANKARA, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - 16h09 - A Turkish prosecutor on Tuesday launched a probe against a Kurdish mayor who reportedly accused the government of discriminating against his administration and said he was ready for "war", Anatolia news agency reported.
The investigation could result in official charges against Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, the report said.
The probe was launched a day after Baydemir accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of not giving financial support to his projects because he was a member of the main Kurdish party in the country, the Democratic Society Party (DTP).
"The city has been discriminated against because its mayor is from the DTP," Baydemir was quoted by the Turkish media as saying.
"If the prime minister and his ministers are declaring war on Diyarbakir, I say 'let us have it'. We are not scared of fighting," he reportedly said.
The DTP is frequently accused of supporting separatist Kurdish rebels waging a bloody campaing since 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast that has cost more than 37,000 lives.
Several of its members have been prosecuted for links with the group.
In a speech on Tuesday at the weekly meeting of the AKP parliamentary group, Erdogan categorically rejected accusations that his government favoured local administrations run by the AKP over those run by other parties.
"Local administrators should generate employment, projects and services rather than empty words," Erdogan said.
Turkey's Kurdish community mainly votes DTP and has given the party scores of local administrations in the impoverished southeast and east of the country.
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