In an interview with ANF on Friday, Ward had this to say about the appointment of the trustees to the municipalities of Amed, Van and Mardin by the AKP:

"I think Erdogan has been spooked by the turn of events in Istanbul. The AKP losing to the opposition CHP in Turkey's largest and most cosmopolitan city is a body blow and so the President is resorting to bully boy tactics in the Kurdish majority cities where he has already set a precedent for overturning democracy with his policy of unelected 'trustees'. In addition to the removal of the recently elected HDP mayors in Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van, the state also detained more than 400 municipal council members and employees. Some of these people will lose their livelihood and find it difficult to make ends meet. When I visited Diyarbakir for the first time in 2016 I met dozens of school teachers who had been removed from their positions and there was huge anxiety about their ability to gain alternative employment."