Akdeniz Municipality co-mayors Hoşyar Sarıyıldız and Nuriye Aslan, and City Council members Özgür Çağlar, Neslihan Oruç, Yakup Danış and Hikmet Bakırhan, were taken into custody in Mersin on 10 January.

The prosecutor's office had referred co-mayors Hoşyar Sarıyıldız and Nuriye Arslan, and City Council member Özgür Çağlar to the judgeship on charges of "membership in an illegal organization", "providing financing for an illegal organization", "propaganda for an illegal organization" and "opposition to Article 2911", citing secret witness testimonies. He requested them to be sent to prison. For the other council members requested arrest on charges of "membership in an illegal organization". The Criminal Court of Peace on Duty issued arrest warrants for Sarıyıldız and Arslan as well as Çağlar, Bakırhan and Oruç. Danış was released on probation.

The people who continued to wait in front of the courthouse protested the decision by chanting the slogan "We will win by resisting."

Speaking at a press conference, ÖHD Mersin Branch co-chair, Ibrahim Kaya said: "Our friends were unlawfully arrested. The decisions were made in advance. Every slogan chanted outside while we were inside boosted our morale."

DEM Party Mersin Provincial co-chair Bedriye Kuş said: "Our friends were arrested following a political decision. They did not commit any crime. This government will be sent to the dustbin of history. This unlawful decision should be reversed as soon as possible. We do not recognize this decision. We stand behind our friends' struggle."

A new protest will be organized at 1pm today at the Özgür Çocuk Park.

DEM Party co-chairs protest arrest of co-mayors

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan protested the usurpation of Akdeniz Municipality and the appointment of a trustee.

Tuncer Bakırhan wrote on his social media: "Our Akdeniz Municipality co-mayors and council members were taken hostage as part of political genocide operations. A trustee was appointed to our municipality, which was elected by the will of the Akdeniz people. The appointment of a trustee to our Akdeniz municipality is an open coup against democracy. It is a political assassination against the hope of peoples living together. We reject it. While internal peace is being discussed on the one hand, the usurpation of the will of the people, on the other hand, is an eclipse of reason. We call for this eclipse of reason to be abandoned as soon as possible.

We reiterate our promise that we will raise our democratic struggle against the tyranny of trustees, coups against democracy and hostility towards Kurds. The oppressors and tyrants will lose, the people will win!"

Tülay Hatimoğulları said: "The government has once again carried out a coup against the will of the people with the help of the judiciary under its command. Our Akdeniz Municipality co-mayors Nuriye Aslan, Hoşyar Sarıyıldız and our council members were arrested and a trustee was appointed in their place. Another black page has been added to the black pages of Turkey's history. A trustee is the denial of the will of the people. It is the tyranny of sweeping away the remaining crumbs of democracy.  Internal peace is not achieved through trustees, but through democracy and freedoms.

We do not accept this usurpation of will while we are trying to increase hope for peace! We call on everyone who believes in democracy and living together to show a democratic attitude against the government's trustees. The trustees will go, and we will definitely win!"

Akdeniz Municipality

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has taken its place on the political scene with a democratic, ecological and women's libertarian paradigm, aimed to realise this on a wider periphery with the 31 March local elections. One of the centres where the party, which entered the elections in many cities of Turkey as well as Kurdistan with its co-mayoral candidates determined on the basis of urban consensus, has a stronghold is the Akdeniz district of Mersin.

DEM Party's candidates Nuriye Arslan and Hoşyar Sarıyıldız run for Akdeniz Municipality for the local elections on 31 March.

The district, which has a cosmopolitan structure due to the coexistence of many different ethnic groups, also has a significant labour potential.

The municipality of Akdeniz, which was governed by Fazıl Türk, the candidate of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) between 2009 and 2014, was won by Fazıl Türk and Yüksel Mutlu, the party's co-mayoral candidates, in the local elections held in 2014.

One of the municipalities to which the government appointed trustees was Akdeniz Municipality. On 18 December 2016, District Governor Hamdi Bilge Aktaş was appointed as trustee in place of the co-mayors who were dismissed by a decision of the Ministry of Interior. The first action of the trustee was to change the name of the municipality's İştar Women's Counselling Centre to "Directorate of Women and Family Services".

In the local elections held in May 2019, the municipality came under the administration of AKP candidate Mustafa Gültak with a 7 percent vote difference. Gültak, who did not lag behind the trustee, made the Directorate of Women and Family Services completely dysfunctional by appointing a male director. Gültak transferred the Women's Guesthouse, which was also built with municipal funds, to the Ministry of Family and Social Services for 25 years on the grounds of lack of budget.

Gültak further transferred Yılmaz Güney Park, which was built during the DBP period, to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to be used as a dormitory. The AKP mayor was authorised to borrow 50 million liras in July 2022 at a municipal council meeting where HDP members were not present. When the municipality's debt reached 72 million liras, 14 immovable properties on 61 acres, including mosques, schools and health centres, were transferred to the Social Security Institution (SGK).

DEM Party's Co-Mayoral candidates Nuriye Arslan and Hoşyar Sarıyıldız, who won Akdeniz by a margin again after 8 years, aim to reintroduce the "equal service to all" model that the people of the district have stayed away from in the past 8 years.

Nuriye Arslan

Nuriye Arslan migrated to Mersin from Muş with her family in 1978 when she was only 10 years old. Dedicating her life to human rights and women's rights defence, Arslan started her political career in the Yenişehir district administration of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and later served as district co-chair. Arslan, who was elected as a member of the Akdeniz Municipality Council in 2019 and had an active profile, was nominated as a co-mayoral candidate by the DEM Party in the 31 March local elections this year after gaining the sympathy and trust of the people.

Hoşyar Sarıyıldız

Born in 1991 in Şırnak’s Cizre district, Hoşyar Sarıyıldız migrated to Mersin with his family in 1994. After graduating from Istanbul University Faculty of Law, Sarıyıldız became co-chair of the Mersin branch of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) in 2016. In 2022, Sarıyıldız was elected as HDP Mersin Provincial Co-chair and became the other co-mayor of the DEM Party for Akdeniz Municipality with the support of the people.