YSP MPs submit motion to examine corruption by trustee mayors in Diyarbakır

Duvar English

Eight Green Left Party (YSP) MPs from the Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakır on Oct. 20 submitted a motion to the general assembly that requests examining the “corruption, damage, and public loss” caused by trustee mayors (“kayyım”) in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakır. 

The motion stated that corruption of the trustee mayors has been public and official knowledge since their appointments.

It listed, “Selling municipal lands, shops, and immovable properties for less than their value, rigging tenders, low-priced rentals, high private expenses, unlawful transfers, conducting election campaigns with municipal resources, irregular recruitment, unqualified appointments, overestimating expenses,” as some of the many damages of trustee mayors. 

The motion also stated that the Parliament is responsible for investigating the damages and public losses incurred by trustee mayors appointed to the Diyarbakır's metropolitan and district municipalities and ensuring the problem never repeats. 

The Turkish government appointed trustee mayors to the Kurdish-majority southeastern provinces beginning from the emergency rule of 2016. Under the “anti-terrorism law,” 94 of the 99 local governments run by the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) were replaced by government appointees. 

After the 2019 local elections, the government dismissed all three of the metropolitan municipal posts won by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) citing “pending terrorism investigations.”

The metropolitan municipality of Diyarbakır was one of them, as Mayor Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı from the HDP, who won with 62.9% of the votes was dismissed by the Interior Ministry. The government appointed then Diyarbakır governor to the post.