The Foreign Affairs Commission of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party has released a statement following the arrest this morning of Memet Sıddık Akış, the elected co-Mayor of Hakkari (Colemêrg) Municipality, and his subsequent removal from his post and replacement by Ali Çelik, the Governor of Hakkari province.
The Turkish government’s practice of arresting democratically elected mayors in Kurdish-majority cities of Turkey, accusing them of alleged links with terrorism, deposing them and replacing them with state-appointed ‘trustees’ began in 2018, and this is the first instance of a mayor being removed from office since the local elections in March.
In addition to “sabotaging of the will of the Kurdish people”, the DEM Party statement draws attention to corruption and financial losses resulting from the appointments, saying that they are a “major obstacle to the democratisation of the country and the democratic solution of the Kurdish Question.”
The party stresses that this is not just a domestic issue as Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe (CoE) and is applying for membership of the European Union. They draw attention to the systematic repression of the country’s democratic institutions and the judicial oppression of elected politicians.
The statement concludes by calling for “all pro-democracy communities, parties and international institutions to take a firm stance against this political coup, to stand in solidarity with the DEM Party, and to defend the political will of the people of Hakkari.”
At the time of writing there has been no reaction from the CoE, it’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) or the European Union.
