Mayor ‘threatened’ with beheaded cat

HAKKARİ

Şemdinli Mayor Sefer Yılmaz (R) held a press conference regarding the incident on Aug. 14.

A beheaded cat has been sent to the mayor’s office in a southeastern town in Turkey to “threaten” the recently-elected politician.

The beheaded cat, which was sent to Şemdinli Mayor Sefer Yılmaz on July 19, was noticed by cleaners who arrived in the office in the morning, Doğan News Agency reported Aug. 15.

“The message is clear. We received this message and took precautions, although they aren’t really adequate. We don’t know who sent the cat’s head,” Yılmaz said in his first statement about the incident on Aug. 14.

Yılmaz was elected mayor of the Şemdinli district in the province of Hakkari in the March 30 local elections from the ranks of the Kurdish problem-focused Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). He also owns a local bookstore, which was bombed in 2005.