In an exclusive interview with Medya News, European Union Turkey Rapporteur Nacho Sánchez Amor strongly condemned the Turkish government’s ongoing use of appointed trustees to replace elected Kurdish mayors. Amor described the practice as a “blatant violation” of democratic principles, stressing that when a mayor is removed, the replacement should be chosen from the same political party to respect voters’ choices.
Amor argued that Turkey’s trustee appointments have more to do with suppressing Kurdish political representation than addressing terrorism, framing it as a tactic to obstruct Kurdish-led municipalities whenever the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) loses local elections. He also connected this approach to broader challenges for Turkey’s democratic and economic stability, stating that political interventions like this undermine international confidence in Turkey’s governance and economy.
“The only way to replace a mayor is to re-elect a local [councillor] of the winning party. If not, you are blatantly violating the most basic rule of democracy, not only in the European Union but in the world,” Amor said on 4 November, responding to the ousting of three Kurdish mayors in Mardin (Mêrdîn), Batman (Êlih) and Halfeti (Xelfetî) earlier the same morning.
When the AKP loses a municipality to a Kurdish party, [it] “always tries” to install a trustee to conduct their policies, he continued. It is “a cycle of complete hijacking of the political will of the electorate” and “a most blatent violation of the most basic rule of democracy”, he said.
The trustee system has nothing to do with protecting Turkey from terrorism, he said. “It is about how to replace a mayor. This is the question and nothing else.”
“It is quite straight,” he said, “that the moment there is a political window for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue, there starts to appear, very timely, horrifying things like the attack in the Ankara defence company – in a very different manner of course – and yet again they [the ruling party] return to the trustee system,” he said, referencing several cases of recently ousted mayors.
“To me it is very suspicious that when you have a window to advance in a solution [to the Kurdish issue], when there is an opportunity and things are happening, immediately things appear of that kind [trustees].”
He concluded by commenting on the economic policies of Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek. “However he tries to convince the world of the reliability of the Turkish economy, to call in investment, this lack of legal certainty is again a problem for Şimşek’s policies,” he said. “The worst nightmare for the ministers is the AKP. Whatever Mr Şimşek says, you only have to look at the domestic situation, the democratic standards of the country, and [you see that] everything Şimşek says to the world is not reliable.”
