A Turkish court in the eastern province of Siirt has decided to ban a report drafted by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) that exposes corruption and irregularities in municipalities run by trustees, the Mesopotamia news agency reported on Friday.
During a state of emergency declared by the Turkish government in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and which remained in effect for two years, the Turkish government appointed dozens of trustees to municipalities mostly run by the HDP. The trustees replaced mayors who had been democratically elected.
The HDP made its “Trustee Report” public at a news conference in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Feb. 28.
The report, which was in Turkish and Kurdish, claimed that trustees were involved in corruption and irregularities in numerous public tenders, changed the Kurdish names of many parks and neighborhoods, closed down women’s centers and kindergartens and caused significant financial losses to the municipalities.
A Siirt court decided for the confiscation of all copies of the report and banned its publication on the grounds that there was terrorist propaganda in it.