Fréderike Geerdink
Early on Monday morning, the Turkish state barged into three municipality buildings in Kurdistan, removed the elected Kurdish mayors from their positions and replaced them by state-aligned ‘trustees’. It was inevitable, despite it being only a few weeks ago that the state gave hints about a possible new peace process. Those hints were, however, never serious anyway, and that is exactly what these new developments show.
It was, to say the least, disheartening to wake up to the ‘trustee news’. The mayors of Halfeti (Xelfetî, in Urfa (Riha) province), Mardin (Mêrdîn) and Batman (Êlih) were sacked. They had been elected with convincing majorities in the local elections in Turkey in March this year, representing Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, the leftist party that is rooted in the Kurdish political movement. Now, a Justice and Development Party (AKP) ‘trustee’ has taken their place.
Ahmet Türk, a well-respected veteran Kurdish politician, won with 57% in Mardin, an ancient and multi-religious city. Mehmet Karayılan won with 39% in the town of Halfeti, a district to which the village of Amara belongs, where Abdullah Öcalan was born. And in Batman, Gülistan Sönük won with a staggering 65% of the vote – a resounding victory for a female candidate in conservative Batman!
Trick
The goal of the DEM Party election campaign had been to send a clear message to the state that the people’s will can not be broken. Because after the previous local elections, in 2019, the state had replaced almost all elected Kurdish mayors by trustees, as they had done with several mayors after the local elections before that, in 2014. The election campaign was successful, but that the state would resort to the same trick again, has been on everybody’s mind since the beginning.
But, I hear you wonder, why now? Just two, three weeks ago there was hope that a new peace process to solve the Kurdish issue was on the horizon, right? Well, that indeed seemed to be the case, but it wasn’t very convincing. That the lead was taken by ultra-nationalist Devlet Bahçeli, who hates Kurds, sort of gave it away. He suggested that Abdullah Öcalan would come to speak in parliament. But a catch was often overlooked. Bahçeli proscribed what Öcalan was supposed to say in parliament, namely that the PKK would be disbanded and that ‘terrorism’ would end.
Deal
I don’t know if the state has discussed this option with Öcalan or not, but the chance that he would agree to such a deal, was zero. Öcalan has repeatedly declared that the time for armed struggle is over, but he has always directly linked that to a political process to solve the human rights issue that the Kurdish issue is. When in a million years would this revolutionary political thinker just give in to the flimsy demands of a Turkish fascist? Just to walk out of prison? Come on. If that was what Öcalan was made of, he would have struck such a deal years ago.
Or, as elected Mardin mayor Ahmet Türk said this morning: “I think they couldn’t reach the desired results during the meetings they had in certain places.”
As long as the state tries to ‘solve the Kurdish issue’ in the way it has been trying to solve it since decades, namely by intimidation and violence, they will not succeed. Bahçeli starting a genuine peace process – I mean, don’t make me laugh! He may have acted on Erdoğan’s lead, but when did anybody see him make a genuine gesture for peace? Even when it comes to the Palestine he claims to love, he is a traitor to the cause, continuing to trade and, via NATO, cooperate militarily with Israel. It’s all a charade.
Trust
Very quickly after the elected Halfeti, Mardin and Batman mayors were kicked out, the police had put up fences around the buildings. I remember how the fortifications that were put up by the previous ‘trustees’, were immediately dismantled after DEM Party’s victory in March. It’s highly symbolic. When DEM Party is in charge, municipalities become open buildings, which citizens can always enter freely to get services or otherwise engage with their elected representatives. The core of the relationship between DEM Party and the locals, is trust. While when the state takes over, the municipality becomes a bunker in which the appointed officials retreat. They distrust the locals- and it’s mutual.
In the three cities concerned and in other places across Kurdistan, people took to the streets to protest and demand respect for their vote. What really shocked me – not surprised me, but shocked me – was the violence that was clearly instantly ordered from inside the bunkers. Protesters were dragged along the streets and pushed and beaten into police vehicles. People were forces to kneel in lines against walls. In Mardin, a water cannon was positioned in front of the municipality building and used against the citizens. The building that is supposed to represent local democracy, literally turned into the frontline to attack voters – the absurdity is just grotesque.
Resistance
What’s next? Surely, many more ‘trustees’, I’m unfortunately sure of that. These three weren’t the first, by the way. In June, already the mayor of Hakkari was replaced, and last week, the same happened to the (Kurdish) Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayor of Esenyurt in Istanbul. In Esenyurt, an action plan has been launched against the ‘trustee’. In the Kurdish cities, the decades-old resistance is up on its feet once again. The state against the will of the people.
Until, one day, the people will take over and crush the bunker once and for all. That day will come. The people have only become more determined.
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
