“We expected a call from Mr [Abdullah] Öcalan, but they sent trustees instead,” declared Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, during his party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday. He accused Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of deliberately obstructing peace by appointing state trustees to Kurdish-run municipalities and carrying out mass arrests of opposition figures.
Bakırhan condemned the government’s latest move in Van (Wan), where an elected mayor was removed and replaced with a state-appointed trustee. “Van’s people took back all 14 municipalities at the ballot box because they had suffered under trustee rule for two terms. The government knew it could not win through elections, so it resorted to dirty tricks, punishing our elected co-mayor and appointing a trustee,” he said.
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He argued that these actions were part of a broader effort to dismantle any possibility of a political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey. “Society expected a message from Mr Öcalan on 15 February, but instead, the government delivered its own message—with a trustee appointment in Van and police raids on political activists,” he said. “The government is determined to destroy any hope of a peaceful solution.”
Bakırhan directly addressed the issue of Abdullah Öcalan’s prolonged isolation, stating that preventing dialogue with the imprisoned Kurdish leader was a major obstacle to any peace process. “Mr Öcalan, in his last meeting with our delegation, said very important things. He opened a door for a solution,” he stated. “He said that the perception of Kurds as a threat by the state must end. I repeat—he said that this perception must end.”
Criticising Ankara’s response, Bakırhan said the government had chosen to escalate repression rather than pursue dialogue. “A government that appoints trustees to Kurdish municipalities, arrests political activists, and isolates Mr Öcalan cannot speak of peace,” he said. “If you have trustees in your mind, you cannot have peace in your words.”
He also denounced the latest wave of arrests targeting members of opposition parties, civil society organisations, and journalists, calling it an attempt to eliminate all voices advocating for peace. At least 52 people, including members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), left-wing parties, and activists, were detained in dawn raids on Tuesday morning. “This is a political extermination operation,” he said. “It is a total attack on the country’s search for peace, democracy, and a solution. This repression aims to turn Turkey into a dark country.”
Bakırhan emphasised that the Kurdish political movement stood behind Öcalan’s approach to resolving the conflict. “We fully trust and support the paradigm that Mr Öcalan has put forward,” he stated. “We want to strengthen the hope of a shared future in this country, where 85 million people live together as equals.”
Addressing those within Turkey’s opposition who remain silent, Bakırhan warned that the state’s current policies would not only affect Kurds but also set a precedent for wider repression. “With this new paradigm, the state’s false claims of ‘security threats’ and ‘national survival’ will lose their function. A new space for democratic politics will open. That is why this process must be supported,” he said.
He accused elements within the Turkish establishment of actively obstructing a peaceful resolution. “Some so-called patriots are practically praying that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) does not listen to Mr Öcalan,” he claimed. “Because if the Kurdish question is solved, they will lose their war-based privileges.”
Despite ongoing repression, he vowed that the Kurdish movement would not be silenced. “No trustee, no amount of state intervention will erase our struggle,” he said. “We will keep fighting for a future where all peoples of Turkey can live in dignity and peace.”
