The Turkish Interior Ministry’s decision to appoint state trustees in municipalities held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party has been strongly criticised by the party’s leadership, with several DEM officials, including co-chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan, travelling to the affected cities in a show of solidarity. Initial statements by the DEM Party leaders condemned the decision as “a blow to the will of the people”.
Hatimoğulları referred to a recent call for peace made by Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the ruling alliance’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in parliament. “They are not interested in peace,” she said, while Co-Chair Bakırhan added: “Those who reached out to us had already planned how they would appoint trustees.”
Protests sparked in Mardin (Mêrdîn), Batman (Elîh) and Halfeti (Xelfêtî), the three Kurdish-majority cities with newly installed trustees. Residents who had voted in the ousted mayors during local elections in March gathered in front of municipal buildings and attempted to evade police barricades to enter the premises. Police responded violently, firing tear gas and reportedly using physical force against demonstrators.
Ahmet Türk, Mardin’s co-mayor who was sacked on Monday morning, urged citizens to gather outside the city municipal building to protest against what he described as a “seizure of the people’s will”. Addressing the crowd, Türk said: “We are facing an administration that has not only seized our mandate but is also trying to suppress democratic rights.” This is the third time that Türk has been removed from his position as mayor on similar charges, underlining the historical pattern of such actions in the region.
Demonstrators who attempted to reach the municple building in Mardin were met with heavy police presence and barricades. Clashes were reported with police firing tear gas and making arrests. Meanwhile, the government cited security concerns and links to banned organisations as justification for the trusteeship, a charge that Türk rejected as politically motivated and lacking in judicial finality.
In Batman (Elîh), Hatimoğulları addressed a rally, declaring: “This is not just an administrative move, it is a judicial coup.” She drew parallels with past military coups, comparing the government’s use of security forces and legal mechanisms to stifle political dissent to the repressive tactics of previous eras: “They couldn’t defeat us politically, so they are resorting to these undemocratic methods to ensure their grip on power.”
Hatimoğulları stressed that despite several similar previous interventions, with trustees imposed on DEM Party municipalities, citizens continued to vote in support of their local representatives. “Even with countless trustees, the people returned to the polls and elected their leaders. This shows that despite the repression, the spirit of resistance is alive.”
Co-chair Bakırhan, in a pointed reference to recent political gestures in the Turkish parliament, said, “Just a few weeks ago we were extending our hands for dialogue, but behind the scenes they were planning this attack on our autonomy. This is not just an attack on us; it’s an affront to everyone who values democracy in this country.”
Bakırhan urged opposition parties to show wider solidarity. “It’s not just a Kurdish issue; it’s about the democratic rights of all citizens,” he said, urging civil society organisations, political parties and interest groups to unite against what he called “the erosion of democratic values and institutional autonomy.”
Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, another prominent DEM Party figure, claimed at a press conference in the Turkish parliament, that the measures were part of a wider effort to marginalise Kurdish political actors and disrupt democratic norms. “This is an unprecedented subversion of public will, facilitated under the guise of maintaining security,” Koçyiğit argued, adding, “These policies are reminiscent of the prolonged states of emergency that have historically targeted Kurdish communities.”
DEM Party and civil society groups have condemned the move as part of an orchestrated effort to undermine the linguistic and cultural identity of Turkey’s Kurdish population. Gülistan Sönük, the deposed co-mayor of Batman, underlined this in her speech, claiming that the government’s actions go beyond mere administrative decisions and amount to removal of the community’s resources and public services: “They are saying to the Kurdish people: ‘We will take the last piece of bread from your table; we will wipe out your language and your culture. But we will not bow down. This fight is for our future.”
Critics view the government’s move as part of a wider strategy to tighten control over municipalities run by opposition parties, particularly those representing Kurdish-majority regions. The ruling alliance claims that the appointment of trustees is necessary for national security and to prevent the misuse of municipal resources.
