Fréderike Geerdink
For the first time in the history of Kurdish politics and in the history of Turkey, the DEM Party candidates in the local elections were chosen in pre-elections. The result were candidates who were not very well known to the general public. But the locals know them. And that’s exactly what could turn out to be their strength.
It’s elections day in Turkey once again. Most of the stories I read about the elections in the Kurdish provinces, are about the ‘kayyum’, the AKP ‘trustees’ that have replaced most of the elected Kurdish mayors after the previous local elections in 2019. Part of the replaced elected Kurdish mayors were thrown in jail, some of them remain incarcerated until this day. The obvious question is: will AKP this time honour the democratic will of the people? Or will it install ‘kayyum’ stooges again?
This is an important question, but we will not the answer yet today. Let’s first see what the outcome is, and then after that whether the AKP can stomach it or not. What we will know today, is whether DEM Party candidates will be successful in kicking out the ‘trustees’. If the people are fed up with being ruled by people they didn’t elect and who don’t even respect their most basic rights – I mean, having your democratic choice respected is a basic right, isn’t it?
Dimension
But there is another dimension to the choice the people are going to make today. It goes beyond voting for AKP or for DEM Party. It has been clear since many years that, generally speaking, part of the Kurdish voters supports AKP, while another is vehemently in favour of the Kurdish party, and a smaller part of the electorate switches between the two. But this time the choice between the two represents something new. I can only sum it up as: will the people vote for those with institutional power, or for trusted local activists?
The vote in my dear city of Amed (Diyarbakır) is a great example. When I lived in the city, Gültan Kışanak was elected as mayor, together with co-mayor Fırat Anlı. They both had a long history in the Kurdish movement, but Kışanak – who was the official mayor because the Turkish system doesn’t allow for co-mayors to be appointed – had already been active in national politics as well. She was a high-profile candidate.
Zarokistan
And look at the DEM Party candidates now. Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun don’t have a national profile. They have not been MPs, they have not had high positions within the party or in other democratic structures of the Kurdish movement. Serra Bucak, I read in this article by the great local journalist Hatice Kamer, studied in Germany and is an experienced name in women’s and children’s studies, who was involved in developing social projects under Gültan Kışanak’s mayorship. She is also one of the founders of the Kurdish nursery called Zarokistan, where Kurdish was the first language instead of Turkish and which was quickly closed by the ‘kayyum’.
Doğan Hatun was the spokesperson of the Diyarbakır branch of the Chamber of Turkish Engineers and Architects, and one of the founders of the crisis desk established during last year’s earthquakes and of the Diyarbakır City Protection Platform.
Arrogance
Bucak and Hatun, in other words, are firmly rooted in the city. In the pre-elections, the people chose them to represent them. It was highly toe-curling when AKP Diyarbakır MP Galip Ensarioğlu said earlier this month about the DEM Party candidates: “You wouldn’t recognize them if you saw them on the road.” The arrogance was repulsive. What instantly crossed my mind, was that it is a rather cruel thing to say about a party of which many politicians are locked up by the government you represent, and therefore less politically experienced candidates were competing in the pre-elections.
The spokesperson of DEM Party’s Women’s Assembly, Halide Türkoğlu, replied in the sharpest way possible though: “Those who do not recognize themselves, their essence, their identity, the will of the people, of course do not recognize the representatives of the people.” She added that she knew him very well and who he sided with, and mentioned crimes of the state against the Kurds.
Hearts
This is key to the elections today. The DEM Party candidates may not be known very well to the larger public, but what does ‘the larger public’ mean anyway? What matters, especially in local elections, is that the candidates know the lives of the people in their towns and cities, that they know their problems and can work to solve them. The DEM Party candidates may not be very experienced politicians, but that actually speaks for them, not against them. Especially Serra Bucak has worked in the city with the people for many years and knows Diyarbakır inside out. And the people know her, resulting in her candidacy.
Everybody knows Galip Ensarioğlu, sure, but he is not in peoples’ hearts. He represents the state, and what has the state ever done in the city, besides destroying it?
Who is going to win in Amed and in other Kurdish cities: the local activists turning politicians of DEM Party, or those representing the state’s institutions of AKP? That will give the ‘trustee’ question another dimension too. How afraid will the state turn out to be for the local forces?
*Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
