The Turkish Interior Ministry has removed the elected co-mayor of the Kurdish-majority Kağızman (Qaxizman) municipality, Mehmet Alkan, from office and appointed the district governor, Okan Daştan, as trustee. The decision followed Alkan’s sentencing on 20 February to six years and three months in prison for alleged membership of an [illegal] organisation. After the verdict, security forces surrounded the municipality building, prior to the official appointment of the trustee in his place.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party strongly condemned the government’s move, describing it as an attack on the democratic rights of voters. “Once again, those who fear the will of the people are at work. The trustee appointment in Kağızman is a declaration of war by the ruling AKP against the peoples’ right to vote and be elected,” the party said. DEM Party argued that its municipalities were being targeted for providing public services and disrupting corruption networks. “Neither we nor the people will accept these usurpations. We do not accept this coup against our elected co-mayors. The trustee system will collapse and the will of the people will prevail,” it stressed.
The deputy leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Burhanettin Bulut, also criticised the move, pointing out that the government is seizing control where it did not win the elections. “The government has taken over 12 municipalities through backroom manoeuvres instead of respecting the results of the election,” he said.
Addressing the Kağızman trustee appointment specifically, Bulut accused the government of undermining democracy. “Less than a year after the elections of 31 March [2024], the ruling party has forcibly taken over 12 municipalities that it failed to win at the ballot box. The appointment of a trustee for the Kağızman municipality is a direct attack on the will of the people of Kağızman and on democracy itself. We reject this illegality, this hostility to democracy and this authoritarian imposition,” he said.
The appointment of trustees to opposition-led municipalities has been a recurring practice under the ruling AKP government, drawing widespread criticism both domestically and internationally.
