On 26 June, citizens and MPs of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) began a new public vigil to protest against the appointment of a state trustee in place of the elected mayor in Hakkari (Colemêrg). It was announced that the vigil will continue in the coming weeks.
On 3 June, a state trustee was appointed by the Turkish government to manage Hakkari Municipality in place of the elected Kurdish mayor. Mehmet Sıddık Akış, the deposed mayor, was sentenced to 19 years and 6 months on terrorism charges by the Hakkari 1st High Criminal Court on 6 June. The sentence came just 24 hours after Akış was arrested on 5 June, marking another instance in a broader pattern where local elected Kurdish officials are removed from their posts under various pretexts.
Since then, multiple demonstrations and vigils have been held to protest these practices, one of the largest being a major rally in Hakkari on 13 June, in which tens of thousands of supporters called for democracy and to reinstate Akış as mayor.
The DEM Party also recently announced a protest march to demonstrate opposition to the appointment of state trustees in place of elected officials in Turkey. The march will start on 30 June and continue for six days from Istanbul to Hakkari.
