The Basque LAB trade union released a statement condemning the usurpation of the municipalities of Mardin, Batman and Halfeti through government-appointed trustees.

Denouncing what is happening in Kurdistan and demanding Turkey to respect the popular will of the Kurdish people, LAB trade union stated the following:

“From the Basque Country, Basque trade union LAB denounces that the Turkish Ministry of Interior usurped the will of the people and appointed administrators in the Metropolitan Municipalities of Mardin (Mêrdîn), as well as the municipalities of Batman (Êlih) and Halfeti (Xelfetî). All three municipalities were legitimately governed by the Peoples' Democracy and Equality Party (DEM), which won the elections on 31 March 2024.

During the early hours of this morning, the local councils have been blocked by the police in the three Kurdish localities and the Turkish government has replaced the local governments with management bodies. This is a very serious violation of the civil and political rights of the Kurdish population, although unfortunately it is not the first time that a similar situation has happened.

In the Basque Country, we have experienced at first hand the denial of the right to political participation, and for years, the banning of political organisations, electoral candidacies and the persecution of those who opposed the banning was a constant.

It is totally unacceptable that violations of fundamental rights such as these continue to take place, but the impunity that a country like Turkey, a regional power and member of NATO, feels is total. It is the double standard of the Western world that denounces alleged electoral fraud in Venezuela but looks the other way in the face of these violations. As we have denounced so many times, the position of the Western world has nothing to do with the supposed defence of democracy but with the defence of the interests of capital.

For all these reasons, the Basque LAB trade union denounces what is happening in Kurdistan and demands Turkey to respect the popular will of the Kurdish people. It is time for the international community to get involved with all the tools at its disposal to promote a democratic resolution to the Kurdish question, starting with the recognition of the right to self-determination of Kurdistan and respect for its national rights.”