Condemning the Turkish government’s decision to appoint a trustee to Van (Wan) Municipality on 15 February, Tülay Hatimoğulları, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, has declared “We do not accept it”. Speaking in front of the Ministry of Justice in Ankara, she described the move as a deliberate provocation against ongoing dialogue on the Kurdish question. “15 February is the day when Mr Abdullah Öcalan was brought to Turkey through an international conspiracy. There is a deliberate meaning behind choosing this date. We are fully aware of its significance.”
Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan, the DEM Party’s other co-chair, along with all DEM Party municipal co-mayors, city council members, and dismissed officials, gathered at Ankara’s Güven Park to protest the government’s trustee decisions on Wednesday. The demonstration served as a direct challenge to the policies targeting Kurdish-run municipalities.
The move came after the government dismissed elected co-mayors Abdullah Zeydan and Neslihan Şedal, sparking tensions and widespread condemnation. This decision has fuelled the protests that have been ongoing in Van since Zeydan was sentenced on 11 February to three years and nine months in prison for allegedly supporting a terrorist organisation.
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Hatimoğulları began the protest in Ankara with a powerful statement, saying, “This government came to say that we will get rid of the military regime. But let this government get rid of the military regime. They have set up their own regime. They don’t see the Kurds as true citizens anyway. They don’t see the Kurds as people who can ever rule themselves, as people who can vote and be voted for. But at the same time they see Kurds as people who cannot be served. This is a form of torture and they are carrying it out. They implement it with the means of the trustees. They are doing it with the governors they have appointed, with the local authorities. This is unacceptable.”
She insisted that despite the government’s attempts to undermine democracy, the DEM Party remained steadfast in its commitment to peace. “We will not allow this oppression to break our will. The appointment of a trustee in Van is an attempt to destroy the progress made by the people in their struggle for democracy. This is not only an attack on Van, but an attack on the right of every citizen to self-government.”
Bakırhan echoed these concerns, calling the appointments a “political conspiracy” and a threat to democracy. “We are here today representing 6.5 to 7 million votes,” he said. “Our elected representatives have come to Ankara to speak out against an injustice, an unlawful act, a coup.”
Tuncer Bakırhan followed with a strong challenge to the government: “We warn this government that has committed this theft once again. Stop stealing the will of the people. Respect the will of the people. If you continue with this theft, be prepared to be a ‘puppet party’ in the next period. You say: ‘Let’s have an election, if you choose me, I will accept this election. If you don’t choose me, I will put your will in jail, I will appoint a government official, a colonial official in your place, and I will rule this city’. We reject this.”
Both leaders linked the crackdown on elected Kurdish representatives to broader resistance against a negotiated resolution to the Kurdish question. “While some people speak about peace and solutions, they sabotage the process by appointing trustees,” Bakırhan said. “The trustee mentality is an obstacle to peace. The trustee system is an attack on the latest peace discussions.”
Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), remains central to the Kurdish political movement. Hatimoğulları and Bakırhan suggested that his continued isolation is a barrier to any serious negotiations. “Today, in Turkey, there are indeed some initiatives aimed at resolving the Kurdish question peacefully and democratically,” Hatimoğulları stated. “But as the DEM Party, we will never abandon our long-standing struggle for peace.”
Despite the latest wave of arrests and trustee appointments, the DEM Party leaders vowed to continue their struggle. “We will keep saying ‘peace’, we will keep demanding peace, we will keep advocating for peace—together,” Bakırhan said.
Meanwhile, Sezai Temelli, a deputy from the DEM Party, raised the issue in the Turkish parliament, saying: “The trustee is a coup. Are you a coup plotter? The first thing coup plotters do is attack parliaments. Yesterday you attacked the city council in Van. If you were watching this on television and you were a citizen of another country, you would say: ‘There has been a coup in Turkey’. You have attacked the Van Municipality with the same methods as the coup plotters. Wherever you appoint a trustee, the will of the Kurdish people will continue to defend itself against the coup-makers. We will not allow coups.”
Trusteeships have been a flashpoint in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority regions, where opposition parties accuse the government of erasing democratic victories. The Turkish government has long appointed trustees to replace elected officials in municipalities won by pro-Kurdish parties, citing alleged links to terrorism. However, critics argue this is a tactic to suppress Kurdish political representation and control local resources.
