Gov't ignored millions of voters' wills via sacking 47 mayors in one year, HDP says in report on trustees

Duvar English

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has prepared a report on trustees, saying that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ignored the votes of millions of people via sacking 47 mayors in the past year.

According to the report, 18 co-mayors were arrested and the appointment of trustees resulted in ignoring the 4,268,558 voters who cast their votes in the March 31, 2019 local elections.

The HDP won municipalities of three metropolitan cities, five provinces, 45 districts and 12 towns, totaling 65, in the March 31, 2019 local elections. Some 1,230 municipal council members and 101 provincial council members were selected from HDP lists.

On Aug. 19, 2019 trustees were appointed to Diyarbakır, Van and Mardin municipalities, kicking off what the HDP calls a "Second Trustee Period." Mayors of Iğdır, Batman, Siirt and Hakkari were also sacked.

Trustees were appointed to the municipalities of Diyarbakır's Bismil, Eğil, Ergani, Hazro, Kayapınar, Kocaköy, Kulp, Lice, Silvan, Sur and Yenişehir, Urfa's Suruç, Mardin's Derik, Nusaybin, Kızıltepe, Mazıdağı and Savur, Van’s Başkale, Erciş, İpekyolu, Muradiye, Özalp and Saray, Ağrı’s Diyadin, Muş’s Bulanık and Varto, Bitlis' Güroymak, Siirt’s Baykan and Kurtalan, Şırnak’s İdil and Cizre and Hakkari’s Yüksekova.

The mayors of Akpazar, Sarıcan, Karayazı, Esentepe, Altınova, İkiköprü, Gökçebağ and Lafeli town municipalities were also sacked.

According to the report, the appointment of trustees was followed by bans on all events and demonstrations at the area.

Speaking at the press conference organized to reveal the report, HDP deputy Garo Paylan said that the government wants to prevent the party from getting stronger.

"The peace process was ended and our cities were ravaged," Paylan said on Aug. 18, referring to the peace process between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the state in 2015, which was ended by the government.

"In addition, a politics of coup started to be implemented in order to destroy all the institutional areas that the HDP is powerful in. Our co-chairs and deputies were arrested after their parliamentary immunities were lifted upon the orders of the Presidential Palace. A coup underwent in parliament," Paylan added.

Paylan was referring to the arrests of former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, as well as other deputies, in 2016.

"Trustees were started to be appointed to our municipalities in 2016 - 2017," he said.

"We came back stronger to parliament in the next elections and called for peace and democracy. We also took all the trustee-appointed municipalities back," Paylan said, adding that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan foresaw that the HDP would take all the trustee-appointed municipalities back in elections.

"He said, 'If they win, we'll take the municipalities back from them.' Erdoğan is a putschist," Paylan noted.

He also criticized opposition parties for not slamming the government's practices enough.