The pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party is continuing its grassroots campaigning by visiting districts, neighbourhoods and villages in the run-up to Turkey’s local elections on 31 March. Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan was warmly welcomed by a large crowd at a meeting in Mardin (Mêrdîn), a sign of strong support for the party in the region.
During the rally, Bakırhan criticised recent remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who suggested that the existence of local administrations in opposition to the central government leads to a lack of services. Bakırhan accused Erdoğan of effectively saying “no services for those who don’t vote for us” and questioned the quality of services provided by trustees appointed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to replace Kurdish mayors.
Highlighting the ongoing Kurdish conflict, Bakırhan called for dialogue, stating that peace and a life free of conflict can only be achieved through negotiations with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who has been held in isolation in İmralı Prison for 25 years. This position underlines the party’s view that the resumption of the peace process requires direct talks with Öcalan.
As the local elections approach, Erdoğan and the AKP are keen to regain key cities lost to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the 2019 elections. However, the AKP is also seeking to increase its vote share in Kurdish-majority provinces where it previously replaced elected mayors with appointed administrators.
The DEM Party, on the other hand, is determined to win back the municipalities that were taken over by the appointment of trustees.
This election cycle is marked by efforts by both the ruling party and the opposition to sway voters in a politically charged environment, highlighting the importance of local governance and the Kurdish question in Turkish politics.
Waves of trustee appointments to Kurdish-majority municipalities
Following the collapse of short-lived peace talks aimed at ending the Kurdish conflict within Turkey between the PKK and the Turkish government, with the first wave of trustee appointments to Kurdish-majority municipalities in 2016, a total of 95 municipalities were placed under trustees. Along with these appointments, 93 co-mayors of the replaced municipalities were also arrested.
Interpreted as a reflection of public reaction to the trustee appointments, during the local elections on 31 March 2019, the pro-Kurdish HDP won the mayor’s office of a total of 65 municipalities.
Only four months after the elections, on 19 August 2019, a process began in which trustee appointments continued in waves and numerous Kurdish mayors were arrested.
