Mehmet Sıddık Akış of the DEM Party was elected the Mayor of Hakkari province, winning 48.92 percent of the vote in the elections held on 31 March. He was taken into custody in Van this morning and the municipality was blockaded. The Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Akış was suspended from duty and a trustee was appointed in his place.

The Congress of Democratic Societies of Kurdistan in Europe (KCDK-E) released a written statement calling for action against the usurpation of the Hakkari Municipality. KCDK-E emphasised that they would raise the struggle against both the trustee coup and the occupation attacks and that they would stand up against the isolation system and make fascism regress.

The statement reads as follows:

‘We will escalate the struggle against the trustee coup carried out today in Hakkari and the occupation attack against Rojava and Medya Defense Zones by rising up wherever we are and by standing up against this isolation system.

A total struggle is required against the total war that imposes a genocide of the Kurdish people through political extermination and occupation attacks. For 100 years, the monist Turkish state, which has subjected peoples to genocide and assimilation, has not given up this goal.

After its defeat in the 31 March elections, the AKP-MHP fascist alliance is attacking the political gains of the Kurdish people with a vow of revenge. The AKP-MHP fascist government, which usurps democratic rights and gains through trustees, is dragging the geography as a whole into the abyss.  

DEM Party Co-Mayor of Hakkari Municipality, Mehmet Sıddık Akış, was dismissed and replaced by Governor Ali Çelik, appointed by the Ministry of Interior as a trustee. Thus, the will of the people was openly usurped.

The usurpation of DEM Party Hakkari Municipality is directly linked to the invasion attacks against Rojava and Medya Defence Zones.

During its 22 years in power, this government, which has usurped the Kurdish people's right to elect and be elected by all kinds of methods and disregarded the will of the people with anti-democratic methods, is an enemy of the Kurds. The fascist government, which stepped back with the uprising of hundreds of thousands in Van, seems not to have learned a lesson from this popular uprising.

The attempt to usurp the democratic will of the peoples under the fallacy of normalisation is a complete hypocrisy. The anti-Kurdish government continues to be in power with violence and trustee politics, recognising no law.

The dictator Erdoğan, who does not accept the people's taking their place in the democratic administration through the elections to be held in North-East Syria on 11 June, has declared open war over these elections and stated that they will do everything to prevent them. The usurpation of the DEM Party Hakkari Municipality is directly linked to the war that is wanted to be waged against Rojava in the coming days.

The occupying Turkish army, which could not achieve the results it desired in the Medya Defense Zones and suffered heavy defeats one after the other, is preparing for a comprehensive war together with the treacherous forces. This genocidal invasion attack preparation aims to annex the Kurdish geography as a whole.

The Turkish army and dictator Erdoğan, who suffered a great defeat in the Kobanê resistance, launched these political genocide attacks with a vow of revenge, and the goal of comprehensive war against Rojava and Medya Defense Zones will be repelled by the resistance of the Kurdish people.

We will fight against the trustee coup carried out in Hakkari today and the occupation attack against Rojava and Medya Defense Zones by raising the struggle wherever we are and by standing up against this isolation system.

We will respond by raising our struggle against these genocidal attacks in Europe, Australia and Canada. Again, we must expose the bloody face of the fascist Turkish state and dictator Erdoğan to the peoples of Europe and the world.

As KCDK-E, we call on our people and friends to stand up against both the political genocide attacks and the war against Rojava and Medya Defense Zones with organised, qualified actions and activities in all areas we are in.”