The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) announced the report it prepared regarding the usurpation of Mardin (Mêrdin) Metropolitan Municipality, Batman (Êlih) and Halfeti (Xelfetî) municipalities. ÖHD co-chair Ekin Yeter and many people attended the meeting held at the ÖHD building in Amed.

The 130-page report was read by ÖHD General Directorate member Muhittin Muğuç, and included the rights violations committed by the police against the protests that took place between 4 and 13 November 2024.

Muğuç spoke about the debts left by the trustees appointed to municipalities for 3 terms, the bans, and the pressures on the Kurdish language and culture, and added that 147 municipalities belonging to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and DEM Party have been usurped since 2016, and that DBP, HDP and DEM Party executives were taken into custody and arrested after the appointment of trustees.

Muğuç noted that 95 trustees were appointed to DBP municipalities, 48 ​​to HDP municipalities, 5 to DEM Party municipalities, 2 to AKP municipalities, and 1 each to MHP and CHP municipalities. He noted that after the 2024 local elections, 5 municipalities, 1 of which a metropolitan municipality, were taken over by the government, and added that after the appointment of a trustess, Hakkari (Colemêrg) Municipality co-mayor Mehmet Sıddık Akış and Esenyurt mayor Ahmet Özer were arrested. Drawing attention to the fact that the Ministry of Interior appointed trustees for the 3rd time to Batman and Mardin and for the 2nd time to Halfeti, Muğuç noted that a total of 105 council members were dismissed from their duties.

'The people's right to vote was violated'

Muğuç said that the right to vote of over 880 thousand voters was violated, and 105 councils ended their duties, and added that the total debt to the 3 municipalities from the previous term was around 8 billion 400 million TL. Reminding that a 10-day ban on protests was imposed after the usurpation, Muğuç stated that meetings and demonstrations were attacked in many places, and that pepper spray, plastic bullets, pressurized water, handcuffing people behind their back, playing nationalist songs, not giving food and water as well as physical force was used in these attacks.

Detention, arrest and torture

Muğuç stated that 215 people were detained in Batman, 37 of them were sent to prison, 115 people were released on condition of judicial control (house arrest for 5 people). He reported that 16 people were detained in Halfeti, 10 people, including a child, were sent to prison, and 6 people were released on probation. Muğuç noted that 10 out of 30 people detained in Mardin were sent to prison, and 13 people were released on probation.

Muğuç also noted that 57 out of a total of 261 people taken into custody were sent to prison.

Muğuç said that an investigation has been launched into a total of 217 social media accounts protesting the appointment of trustees.  

Muğuç said: "As a result of the appointment of trustees to municipalities and the dissolution of the municipal councils, which are the ‘decision-making body of the municipality’, the minimum democratic basis for the participation of the people/citizens in the administration has been eliminated. The principle that municipalities should be ‘administered by an elected municipal administration and municipal council’ has been suspended. With the appointment of trustees, the right to vote and be elected, which is an indispensable element of a democratic society, has been suspended. In the provinces where Kurds predominantly live, the practice of appointing trustees has become a common practice, justified by the concept of ‘terrorism’. The removal of co-mayors from office without concrete justification is a violation of guaranteed rights."