DEM Party denounces Interior Ministry probe into municipalities 

Duvar English

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party on April 20 responded to the investigation Turkey’s Interior Ministry launched into the Mardin and Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipalities. 

The ministry on April 19 appointed inspectors to investigate claims that the Turkish national anthem was not recited in the inauguration ceremony and the Turkish flag was removed from municipality offices.

The party firmly denounced all allegations against its municipalities in a statement posted on social media.

“All ranks of our party, including our local administrations have been involved in politics for years without any disregard for national symbols,” read the statement. 

According to the party, the baseless claims and dirty conspiracies were attempts to target the municipalities it recently removed from trustee administrators in the local elections. 

“The people’s real concerns are the pillage the trustee mayors ravaged in their provinces,” noted the DEM Party.

The statement continued that the probes launched by the Interior Ministry were attempts to obscure the malpractices of trustee mayors. 

The allegations were born from video footage of a dispute at the Sur district municipality’s inauguration ceremony.

In the video, an individual was seen trying to take down the photograph of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from one municipal office.

Co-mayors of the district intervened and stopped the individual.

The Interior Ministry appointed trustees to the Diyarbakır and Mardin Metropolitan Municipalities in 2016 and 2019, after ousting democratically elected mayors Selçuk Mızraklı and Ahmet Türk from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for allegations of terrorist organization involvement. 

The newly elected DEM Party municipalities prioritize fixing the economic and social harm caused by trustee administrations.