Opposition MPs protest Turkish interior minister at parliament over trustee appointments

Duvar English

Opposition deputies in Turkey protested Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya at the Parliament over the trustee appointments on Nov. 20. 

During the sessions in the Parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission to discuss the 2025 budget, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies protested the minister while he was entering the hall.

The CHP deputies protested Yerlikaya over the ministry’s trustee mayor appointments. The ministry recently appointed four trustees to oust opposition mayors, three from the DEM Party and one from the CHP. 

The protest led to a quarrel between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and CHP deputies. 

The AKP deputies claimed that the opposition prevented the minister from entering the hall.

In response, the CHP deputies said the minister’s bodyguard increased the tension. 

Meanwhile, Minister Yerlikaya pushed the camera of a press member during the quarrel. 

“Shameful images. Today, the minister came and pushed two MPs, me and the deputy chair, even before we shook hands. How dare you push me? I'm an MP, I want to talk to you. How dare you? This is parliament. MPs from this parliament could not enter the municipality building in Esenyurt for ten days,” CHP Group Deputy Chair Ali Mahir Başarır said at the hall after the quarrel. 

Esenyurt Municipality is one of the municipalities to which the ministry appointed a trustee. 

“Do you understand the feeling of those MPs waiting at Esenyurt Municipality?” Başarı said.

Later on the same day, AKP Group Deputy Chair Abdullah Güler said they were expecting an apology from the CHP leader Özgür Özel.

In response to Güler, Özel said he would apologize “If they apologize to our deputies who were kept waiting in Esenyurt.”

Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş deemed the protest “a disrespectful act against the democratic functioning of the Parliament.”