19 Co-Mayors in Jail instead of Governing Municipalities

In approximately three months in nine provinces:

* 18 co-mayors from Democratic Regions Party (DBP) have been arrested;

* A co-mayor was unseated and has been put under house arrest,

* Two provincial council speakers have been arrested;

* Four co-mayors weren’t arrested but have been unseated.

Union of Democratic Local Governments Co-Chair Çimen Işık, indicates all the cases were given confidentiality order.

Işık said:

“We don’t deny the state while declaring self-governance, we say the state + democracy. Municipality vehicles were confiscated in many districts where self-governance was declared. I mean, municipalities inform the governorship about the public service and if the governorship approves it, municipality starts working.”

18% of DBP co-mayors are being investigated

Dismissals and arrestments continue in 18 municipalities. Four arrested co-mayors of 19, are from provincial municipalities while 15 of them are from district municipalities.

10 female co-mayors and 9 male co-mayors were arrested. Women were sent to Sincan Prison, Ankara while males were sent to Kırıkkale Prison.

Işık expressed:

 “They want to preclude co-mayors by keeping them near from being embraced by citizens. They also punish the mayors by keeping them away from their relatives.

“Co-chairmanship was accepted after the arrestments”

Işık:

“It is very striking that they seemed to accept the co-chairmanship once they wanted to arrest us. They didn’t acknowledge it before."

Justification: Self-governance and human shield protests

There are two justifications for the arrestments: participating in human shield protests and declaring self-governance.

12 co-mayors will be put on trial according to Article 302 of Turkish Penal Code (TCK), it states “A person who publicly denigrates the Turkish Nation, the State of the Turkish Republic or the Grand Assembly of Turkey and the judicial institutions of the State shall be punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years.”

11 other co-mayors will be put on trial with allegations of “committing crime on behalf of illegal organization” according to the media.(ÇT/BD)

 Click here to read the article in Turkish