Tuncer Bakırhan, the Co-Chair of the People’s Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP), concluded his week-long regional tour with a public gathering in Hakkari. Addressing the attendees in front of the HEDEP Provincial Office, Bakırhan focused on the upcoming local elections and the contentious issue of appointed trustees in municipalities.
Trustees are non-elected officials who are appointed by the central government to replace elected mayors who are accused of links to "terrorism" or other crimes. This practice has been widely used against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) since 2016, when the government removed 95 HDP mayors from office and replaced them with trustees.
The government continued this policy after the 2019 local elections, when the HDP won 65 municipalities in the Kurdish-majority provinces, but six of them were denied their certificates of election and 48 of them were later dismissed and replaced with trustees. The Council of Europe has found this practice to be contrary to international law and a serious violation of local democracy.
"Trustee means corruption"
Bakırhan criticized the government’s practice of appointing trustees, stating, “For two terms now, they have appointed trustees to govern us. Trustee means corruption and theft; it means removing the name of Apê Mûsa from the signboard. The trustee is the one who closed the Ayşe Şan Cultural Center and demolished the statue of Celadet Bedirhan. The trustee is against women, Kurds, youth, and workers. So, what does the trustee do? Honestly, they engage in plunder and corruption.”
Providing specific examples, Bakırhan highlighted the financial impact of trustee appointments in various regions, stating, “If we were to recount the corruption of the trustees in Diyarbakır’s Bağlar, Mardin, and Batman, two days would not be enough. Van’s debt has doubled, Siirt’s debt has tripled. There are no roads, no infrastructure.”
Bakırhan urged a change in the trustee system through democratic means, stating, “In the upcoming elections, we will bury this trustee system in the ballot box. We will send the trustee back to their hometown, to the Palace.”
Describing the lands as "ancient" and resistant to those who do not embrace democratic values, Bakırhan concluded, “Whatever they do, today, tomorrow, or the day after, peace winds will blow in Turkey and Kurdistan; there will be no trustees. Those who reject the Kurds, who rot Kurdish youth in prisons, who send them into exile will undoubtedly lose in these lands.”
Bakırhan announced that the party would soon unveil its local election strategies, concluding with, “Our people want us to participate not only in Kurdistan but everywhere. We will carefully consider and discuss our people’s request and announce in the coming days how we will determine our election strategy in this regard.” (RT/VK)
