Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu visits Mardin co-Mayor Türk replaced with trustee

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has visited Mardin co-Mayor Ahmet Türk to throw support behind him. The government recently undemocratically appointed a trustee mayor to replace Türk.

Sunday November 17 2024 11:58 pm

Photo: The Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB)

Duvar English

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Nov. 16 visited Mardin co-Mayor Ahmet Türk, from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party.

İmamoğlu visited 82-year-old senior Kurdish politician Türk in his historic home in the southeastern Mardin province. The move came after the government undemocratically appointed a trustee mayor to replace Türk.

This is the third time Türk was replaced with a trustee by the government as Mardin mayor, following 2016 and 2019.

After the visit, Türk and İmamoğlu held a press conference together.

Thanking İmamoğlu, Türk said, “There is no way this country can achieve democracy with trustee politics. We would like to see the development of a peaceful, embracing process. A process in which justice and inequality are eliminated. All of us who believe in democracy are striving for this. I believe that democracy will come to this country in a very short time.”

İmamoğlu said, “While we were talking about local empowerment and greater local powers in our country, unfortunately, we have experienced the opposite for many years. Local powers have been restricted. In fact, today in Turkey, there is a shortsightedness that has reduced the budgets of local governments to the level of paying salaries. We are talking about the usurpation of the right to vote. We are talking about the right to vote being counted as non-existent.”

İmamoğlu is also the head of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB).

İmamoğlu said appointing trustees “is a situation that has caused our Republic of Turkey and our nation to lose prestige in the world. We are in solidarity today in order to get rid of all these.”

When asked what he thinks of President Erdoğan’s remarks “They are not elected mayors, they are unknown types” for the replaced DEM Party mayors, İmamoğlu said “The bad words belongs to its owner.”

After the conference, both figures paid a visit to the shopkeepers in the city.

The Turkish government has appointed trustees to 149 municipalities since mid-2016, mostly to those run by the DEM Party.