Turkey arrests 2 Kurdish co-mayors, replaces them with trustee

Two co-mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in the Akdeniz district of southern Mersin province who were detained on Friday have been arrested on terrorism-related charges and replaced with government-appointed trustees, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

In addition to Akdeniz Municipality Co-mayors Hoşyar Sarıyıldız and Nuriye Aslan, city council members Özgür Çağlar, Hikmet Bakırhan and Neslihan Oruç were also arrested after appearing in court.

A statement released by the Interior Ministry early on Monday said the mayors were removed from office on charges of “disseminating terrorist propaganda,” “membership in a terrorist organization,” “violating law on financing of terrorism” and “violating the law on meetings and demonstrations.”

Mersin İli Akdeniz İlçe Belediye Başkanı ve Meclis Üyeleri İle İlgili Basın Açıklamamız: pic.twitter.com/qD6Dcut28u

— T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı (@TC_icisleri) January 13, 2025

The ministry appointed Akdeniz District Governor Zeyit Şener to replace the mayors.

The DEM Party and its co-chairpersons, Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncay Bakırhan, condemned the arrests of the co-mayors and their removal from office in separate statements on X on Monday, labelling it as an assault on democracy and the will of the people.

DEM Party officials and supporters gathered in front of the Akdeniz city hall on Monday  to express their support for the arrested mayors and protest the trustee appointment.

Both Hatimoğulları and Bakırhan said the arrest and the removal of the Kurdish mayors are unacceptable at a time when the Turkish government has established dialogue with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) aimed at ending the conflict with the PKK, which has waged a war against the Turkish state since 1984.

DEM Party officials met in late December with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK who has been serving a life sentence on the island of İmralı since 1999.

It was the first visit by the party in almost a decade and a clear sign of easing tensions between Ankara and the PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.

In the latest local elections in March 2024, the DEM Party won a dozen municipalities in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast despite the fact that the party raised allegations of voter fraud that benefited the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

In Akdeniz, Sarıyıldız and Arslan won around 37 percent of the vote, leaving the AKP mayoral candidate, who received only 30 percent, far behind.

Akdeniz was one of the municipalities whose mayor was ousted by the government in 2016. It had been run by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the DEM Party’s predecessor.

In the local elections of 2019, an AKP candidate won the municipality. With the DEM Party candidates’ success in the March elections, the municipality was returned to a pro-Kurdish party after an absence of eight years.

When they took office, Sarıyıldız and Arslan had promised to open the municipality’s door to every person living in the district regardless of their political preference or identity. They said they would manage the city democratically and constantly consult with locals when making decisions on the city’s problems.

But the mayors were allowed to remain in office only for around nine months.

The Turkish government has removed 154 mayors from office, most often on accusations related to terrorism, in the last eight years, replacing them with government-appointed trustees, according to a recent report published by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The report, titled “Government Trustee Interventions: Threats to Democracy and the Constitution in Local Elections,” argues that the ruling AKP has used the practice to override election results and tighten control over opposition-held municipalities.

The majority of trustee appointments occurred in 2016 after a failed coup, when the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions and other entities under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Sixty municipalities were placed under trustee control that year, followed by 38 in 2019 and 16 in 2020. Some municipalities have faced repeated interventions.

Forty-nine municipalities were under trustee administration ahead of Turkey’s March 2024 local elections. Of those, nine were later won by the AKP or its ally, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The AKP government also took over several municipalities controlled by the DEM Party and the CHP following the March elections, citing terrorism-related court rulings and ongoing investigations.

The recent removal of the mayors has come as a disappointment to many, leading to protests and calls on the government from various segments of society to end the controversial practice and respect the will of the Kurdish people and government opponents.

In previous instances of trustee appointments, the Turkish government claimed the removal of Kurdish mayors was a counterterrorism measure and that the elected mayors were funneling municipal funds to the PKK.

The mayors denied the accusations and described them as politically motivated.