The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) group deputy chairpersons Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and Sezai Temelli made a press statement in front of the Parliament Press Gate against the dismissal of Hakkari Co-Mayor Mehmet Sıddık Akış who was arrested, sentenced to prison and replaced by a government-appointed trustee.

Speaking here, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit said the following:

"We have spoken a lot against the trustee regime. Elections were held on 31 March and the government itself emphasised a new era. He stated that he had received the messages given by the voters. But they did not receive any message from the voters. On the contrary, they have again launched an attack against the society, against the people, against the will at the ballot box, against democracy. It is meaningful that they started this attack from Hakkari. Because the only way for this regime to survive is to attack the Kurds. It is based on rendering the ballot box meaningless and usurping the will of the people.

However, we know very well that the unlawfulness in Hakkari, the coup against the will of the people will not be limited to Hakkari, and that this coup will spread to the whole country step by step. Everyone, in all four corners of Turkey, should stand against this unlawfulness. If we defend democracy together, we can win together. The whole public knows that the Ministry of Interior's conspiracy and the accusations leveled by it are not included in the case file.

They built a garrison, but they could not steal the will of the people of Hakkari. They are trying to usurp what they could not get with the garrison. They deployed quite a number of soldiers and special operations police in front of the governor’s office. Why shouldn't the people of Hakkari defend what belongs to them, their municipality and their will? They surrounded the city with soldiers and police. From our 70-year-old mothers to our 7-year-old children, they indiscriminately spray gas and batter them. We do not accept this fascism and violence. We took democratic action to defend the will of the people on the floor of this Parliament. Our democratic legitimate action was attacked by the AKP. Imagine that 150 AKP deputies wanted to lynch 15 deputies in the Parliament. We are faced with a mentality so far from democracy and humanity that they tore our banners. From here, we would like to address both the public opinion in Turkey and those who committed this unlawful act; the Ministry of Interior should immediately end this law enforcement violence. It must immediately stop this violence against our co-chairs, MPs, delegation and most importantly our people.

There is an attempt to establish a dual law in Turkey. One law is applied to Kurds and another law is applied in the west of Turkey. In Kepez, the mayor was dismissed and the council elected a mayor in his place. Why don't you allow such a process to be carried out in Hakkari? We would like to ask this question once again to the interior minister and the AKP government. Erdoğan said yesterday, ‘It was done according to the law’. Which law is this exactly? Is it the law with which you ignored the will to elect and be elected, or the law with which you dismissed our co-mayors from office with conspiracy cases? Or the law with which you stole the will of the people of Hakkari for the third time? Which law are you talking about! We invite the AKP government to abide by the law and democratic customs. We invite them to understand the message of the people on 31 March and act accordingly. End this lawlessness as soon as possible and remove your law enforcement forces from the streets of Hakkari as soon as possible."

After the statement, DEM Party MPs marched to the Ministry of Interior, chanting the slogan ‘Trustee is a coup. No to coup’. 

DEM Party members in front of the Ministry of Interior are having talks with the ministry officials.