“This is a judicial plot to seize the people’s will once again,” Abdullah Zeydan, co-mayor of Van (Wan) Metropolitan Municipality, declared on Tuesday, rejecting the 3-year, 9-month prison sentence handed to him on charges of “attempting to aid a terrorist organisation”.
A Diyarbakır (Amed) court sentenced Zeydan on Tuesday in a controversial ruling that sparked protests outside Van Municipality. Demonstrators chanted, “Zeydan is our honour” and “We will resist, we will win,” as co-mayors Zeydan and Neslihan Şedal addressed the crowd.
Zeydan, a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, denounced the verdict as “a political decision with no legal basis”. He linked it to a broader campaign to undermine Kurdish political representation.
“After the 31 March elections, when they failed to defeat the people of Van democratically, they resorted to judicial plots. The European Court of Human Rights has already condemned Turkey over these political trials, and now another politically motivated verdict has been issued,” Zeydan stated.
The court ruling follows years of legal battles against Zeydan, who was initially sentenced to more than eight years in prison on charges of “aiding a terrorist organisation” and “propaganda”. His conviction was partly based on a speech he gave in 2015 and his presence at a protest in Hakkari’s (Colemêrg) Yüksekova (Gever) district. However, forensic reports and military testimonies later contradicted key allegations, and Zeydan was released in 2022 after serving over five years.
His latest sentencing is seen as an attempt to pave the way for removing him from office, a strategy previously employed against pro-Kurdish mayors. In 2019, dozens of elected mayors from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the predecessor of the DEM Party, were replaced with government-appointed trustees.
Critics argue that Zeydan’s case exemplifies judicial interference by the Turkish government. “There is no justice, no law, no constitution—only a judiciary that serves the political power,” he said, calling on the public to resist “those who plot, seize, and steal”.
Zeydan vowed to continue defending democracy and the will of Van’s 1.2 million residents, stating, “We will uphold justice and protect the people’s will to the very end.”
