TURKEY’S bullish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu appeared to roll back plans to remove Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu from office today after threatening to “devastate” him last week.

He appeared on CNN Turk to say that there were no plans to appoint government trustees in Ankara or Istanbul — both won by the Republican People’s Party in this year’s mayoral elections.

Mr Soylu said Mr Imamoglu and Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas would only be replaced if they had proven links to terrorism.

It appeared to be a major retreat from the Justice and Development Party official, which came after Mr Imamoglu met with three Kurdish mayors ousted from Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van municipalities last month.

Threatening Mr Imamoglu last week, Mr Soylu said: “Ignorant. Know your place and your limits. This country has been handling this terrorist organisation for 40 years … If you meddle in things that are not your job, we will devastate you.”

The EU Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur Kati Piri warned of “very serious consequences” if Mr Imamoglu was removed as Istanbul mayor — urging Ankara to “think twice before acting.”

But the EU has responded weakly to the removal of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) mayors and previous arrests and detention of opposition politicians.

Former HDP co-leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas face life in prison on trumped-up terror charges and thousands of HDP activists remain behind bars.

Fears that the government may move to close down the HDP have escalated, with the state believed to be behind a mobilisation at the party’s offices in Diyarbakir.

A sit-in is ongoing, organised by mothers who claim the HDP has kidnapped their sons and sent them to join the banned Kurdistan Workers Party in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains.

But HDP officials insist it is a legal political party which does its work in the Turkish parliament.