KOBANI INVESTIGATION

Detained Kars Mayor Ayhan Bilgen announces resignation

Bilgen is one of the HDP members who have been detained as part of an investigation into the 2014 Kobani protests.

İstanbul

Detained Kars Mayor Ayhan Bilgen announces resignation

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Ayhan Bilgen, the Mayor of Kars and a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has announced his resignation on Twitter after being detained as part of an investigation against the party.

"Remand me in custody or release me if you want, if a trustee is not appointed when my detention period ends, I will resign as the mayor," he said.

Detention warrants were issued on Friday (September 25) against 82 members of the party over the "Kobani protest" that took place in 2014 in mostly Kurdish populated regions of the country.

"I am past the age to play democracy. Turkey's circumstances are not suitable to play games either. I won't allow a city's will to be messed with through arbitrary detentions," he said.

"Kars has the competence to rule itself. In a [municipal] council that has shown the maturity to make decisions unanimously for one-and-a-half years, five parties can form a new administration by coming to an agreement," noted Bilgen.

"As everyone seeks to rule the city in the elections, no one should avoid responsibility now. This is not the abandonment of a position but being tested for democracy with a joint administration, as we said in the election campaign.

"Writing my third book if I am remanded in custody, contributing to cooperative works if I am not are not less important than the mayorship. I thank all of my fellow townspeople and my colleagues, especially the team on the field. If we continue with a woman mayor in Kars, a social threshold will be crossed. Nothing should be the same!"

Herkese selamlar, birazdan emniyet ifadesine gireceğim. İfade öncesi kamuoyuna iletmek istediğim mesajı paylaşıyorum; pic.twitter.com/nLRTCCq7n6
— Ayhan Bilgen (@ayhanbilgen) September 30, 2020

What happened?

As part of an investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office into the Kobani incidents on October 6-8, 2014, detention warrants were issued against 82 members of the HDP, including 24 former Central Executive Committee members, on September 26.

Following these orders for detention, Ayhan Bilgen, Alp Altınörs, Nazmi Gür, Altan Tan, Ayla Akat Aka, Emine Ayna, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Bircan Yorulmaz, Gülfer Akkaya, Berfin Özgü Köse, Dilek Yağlı, Can Memiş, Günay Kubilay, Bülent Barmaksız, Zeki Çelik, Pervin Oduncu, İsmail Şengün, Ali Ürküt, Cihan Erdal, Emine Beyza Üstün were taken into custody.

On the day of the operation, the detainees were taken from other provinces to the Ankara Security Directorate in the capital city. While they were restricted from meeting their attorneys for 24 hours, the HDP politicians started to meet their attorneys as of September 27.

While the names of Arife Köse, Yurdusev Özsekmenler, Bayram Yılmaz, Zeynep Karaman were also in the 24-person detention list, they could not be detained as they could not be found in their residences.

The Kobani protests

Before the protests held to support Kobani in northern Syria in 2014, those who were waiting in the district of Suruç, Urfa in southeastern Turkey and wanted to cross the border were intervened with pepper gas and rubber bullets. In the meantime, some pictures allegedly showing ISIS militia crossing the border of Turkey were published.

President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made statements indicating that they equated PKK with ISIS. While the wounded coming from Kobani were kept waiting on the border, the wounded from ISIS were treated at hospitals. Several news reports were reported in the press, saying "Kobani fell." These news reports were denied every time.
After the HDP made a call to take to the streets against a possible massacre in Kobani, thousands of people protested in Kurdish-majority provinces as well as Ankara and İstanbul. While left parties also supported these protests, deaths also occurred with the onset of police violence. Street conflicts ensued. 42 people lost their lives from October 6 to 12, 2014.

According to a report by the Human Rights Association (İHD), 46 people died, 682 people were wounded and 323 people were arrested in the protests held between October 6 and 8, 2014. As reported by the AA, 31 people lost their lives, 221 citizens and 139 police officers were wounded.

Conducted by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman, the investigation started a year ago. First, the depositions of former jailed HDP Co-Chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş were interrogated as part of this investigation. Released in the trial where he had been arrested pending trial, Demirtaş faced another ruling of arrest as part of this "Kobani investigation" on the same day.

(EMK/VK)