On 31 March 2019, the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) won a decisive victory in the local elections in Northern Kurdistan, winning a total of 65 municipalities, including three metropolises, 5 provinces, 45 districts and 12 towns. Yet during the election campaign, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that if the HDP won the elections, all municipalities would be taken back from them. The Turkish government is thus practising a policy aptly described by the Kurdish population as a "coup".

Four and a half months after the elections, Erdoğan began to make good on its threat, step by step. First, on August 19, 2019, the mayors of the Kurdish cities of Amed (Diyarbakir), Mardin and Van were deposed. In the meantime, a total of 40 former HDP-led municipalities have been placed under trustee administration by the AKP regime. In place of the elected politicians, regime officials have been appointed who are systematically destroying the city administrations financially. Arrest warrants have been issued for dozens of mayors, while 25 mayors are still in prison. Six elected mayors could not even take office as they were denied mandate by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) and the AKP candidates that lost the elections were appointed in their places.

As in many other usurped local governments, dozens of municipal employees were dismissed and hundreds transferred to remote locations in Van immediately after the appointment of a trustee. The fund was looted to the point where employees could no longer be paid. This is the second time that democratically elected local governments have been placed under trustees. In autumn 2016, about one hundred Kurdish mayors were deposed and imprisoned. It was not until the local elections on 31 March 2019 that re-elected representatives moved into the municipalities of Kurdish cities and towns.

The struggle continues

ANF spoke with the deposed co-mayor of Van, Mustafa Avcı. The politician says: "In the few months in office we have tried to document the destruction caused by the trustee administration from 2016 to 2019 in detail. Before that we had saved about 4.5 to 5 million liras. We held qualified popular meetings in all districts and met with all the local leaders of Van. We also held talks with all civil society institutions and trade unions. The needs of all were identified and centrally covered. Short-, medium- and long-term planning took place."

With the seizure of the municipalities, there is now a strong suspicion that much was stolen from the public purse, explains Avcı; "It has been observed that irregularities, corruption and blackmail are taking place in almost all usurped municipalities which are literally being plundered."

This means that even in the second phase of trustee administration, the municipalities will suffer great damage over a long period of time, says Avcı and adds: "But whatever comes, we will continue to demonstrate an understanding of social city administration in the face of this predatory mentality of trustee administration and stand by the side of the oppressed and workers. We may have been deposed by the state, but as representatives elected by the people, we will protect our area, keep our word that we gave at elections and continue our struggle.”

RELATED NEWS: