Following the appointment of trustees to the municipalities of Batman, Mardin and Halfti by the Ministry of Interior, protests continue in many cities of Kurdistan.

As demonstrations in Batman continue, the democratically elected and unlawfully ousted co-mayor, Gülistan Sönük, spoke to the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) about the trustee policies.

Noting that the Governor of Batman usurped the municipality, Sönük stated that the governor's threatening statements against the municipality have continued since the day they were elected in 31 March local elections this year. Sönük said, “The Governor of Batman did not get a wink of sleep for 8 months. Just because people breathed a sigh of relief, they themselves could not breathe for 8 months and could not stand it, so they came and usurped the municipality. Of course, this usurpation is not just occupying the municipality building. We consider the trustee as an attack on the Kurdish language, the will of women, the right to life of the disabled and citizens. We took over the municipality with a debt of 3 billion, and it was one of the municipalities with the biggest debt. We do not only see this as a physical blockade of a municipality building. This is also ignoring the labour of the people who went from street to street, house to house during the election process despite the rain, mud, cold and heat. It means not recognising the will of the people in this city who took part in this struggle and paid the price. We do not consider it a simple civil servant entering the municipality building.”

Stating that there is no decision notified to them regarding the appointment of a trustee, Sönük said, “We would like the Governor of Batman himself to come and make a statement both to us and to the whole public and convey the decision himself. No notification has been made to us so far, but we are prevented from entering the municipality. There are thousands of police and soldiers, as well as armored vehicles. There is also the reality of a people in resistance against this. We are here. We are not a people who will hand this municipality over to two cheap officials. Someone did not give us these municipalities. We won them with our own labour, with the labour of the people, with the votes of the people. Therefore, only the people can take the initiative to govern the municipality from us.”

Sönük pointed out that a special war concept was put into effect during the election process, but women responded to this in the strongest way. “We won these municipalities together, and we will defend them together,” said Sönük and invited everyone to gather in front of the municipality to defend their will. Stating that they will increase the resistance, Sönük said, “We are here, we will not surrender our municipality. Because we are one of those who say ‘Surrender leads to betrayal’. Therefore, we will never surrender.”