The Erdoğan government’s removal of five democratically elected mayors and dissolution of municipal councils constitutes a “significant blow to Turkey’s democratic credentials”, denying over half a million voters their chosen representatives from the March 2024 local elections, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Thursday.
HRW condemned the recent actions in İstanbul and Kurdish-majority regions of southeast Turkey, where four mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party and one from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been dismissed on charges of alleged terrorism links. State-appointed trustees now oversee these councils, further raising concerns over local democracy and fair representation.
“Denying hundreds of thousands of voters their chosen local government elected representatives and replacing them with the government’s own appointees not only undermines the democratic process, but violates the right to free and fair elections,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.
The Interior Ministry removed Mardin Mayor Ahmet Türk, Batman’s Gülistan Sönük and Halfeti’s Mehmet Karayılan, who had each won significant majorities. On 30 October, authorities also detained Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer of the CHP, marking the first trustee intervention against the main opposition.
Footage from Batman shows police beating demonstrators following protests, which erupted across several cities in response to the removals. HRW noted that violent dispersals and multiple arrests accompanied the protests.
The removals reflect a controversial amendment to Turkey’s Municipalities Law introduced after the 2016 coup attempt, enabling government-led dismissals and trustee appointments for those accused of terrorism links. Similar interventions occurred in 2016-2017, affecting 94 municipalities, and again in 2019, when the government appointed trustees in 48 municipalities out of 65 won by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
HRW has called for an “immediate reversal” of the removals and restoration of elected incumbents “unless they have been convicted in an independent court of an internationally recognized crime,” Williamson stated.
