Investigation permission not granted for trustees of four municipalities in Diyarbakır

In Diyarbakır, the Ministry of the Interior did not grant permission for an investigation regarding the criminal complaint made by the Diyarbakır Chamber of Architects at the end of 2021 concerning the trustees of district municipalities in connection with "profit-oriented unauthorized construction."

The response from the Ministry of the Interior states that the trustees had fulfilled their duties.

The Diyarbakır Chamber of Architects has, in response, taken the case to the Council of State.

Kayapınar, Yenişehir, Bağlar, and Sur municipalities

The Diyarbakır Chamber of Architects has requested legal action to be taken for unauthorized construction that benefits from land speculation in municipalities. However, when the necessary steps were not taken, a criminal complaint was filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office on December 30, 2021.

In the criminal complaint, it was requested that the trustees/mayors who served in the Kayapınar, Yenişehir, Bağlar, and Sur municipalities at the time be punished for the offense of Abuse of Duty on the grounds that they turned a blind eye to unlicensed unauthorized commercial constructions within their areas of responsibility, allowed these structures to operate, and thereby provided the owners of the buildings with high amounts of unjust gain.

"Illegal wedding hall in health facility area"

The criminal complaint mentioned unauthorized construction of a wedding hall in an area allocated for a health facility, illegal additions to a plaza, a hotel, a school, a wedding hall, a hospital, unlicensed or unauthorized structures in shops around the amusement park, unauthorized renovations in shopping malls and the former Coca Cola factory, among other violations.

Upon these allegations, the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor's Office applied to the Diyarbakır Governorship on June 13, 2022, for permission to investigate the trustees responsible.

And on October 10, 2022 the Diyarbakır Governorship forwarded the request for investigation permission to the Ministry of the Interior.

Approximately one year after receiving the request, the Ministry of the Interior's General Directorate of Provincial Administrations decided not to process the allegations. 

The decision, signed by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, states that the mayors and trustees fulfilled their duties, and there was no need for a preliminary review:

"In the letter from the governorship and the preliminary investigation report attached to it, it was understood that the municipalities mentioned in the scope of the alleged issues took decisions of the Municipal Assembly to demolish unlicensed or non-compliant structures with the provisions of Article 32 of Law No. 3194 on Immeasurable Land and to impose administrative fines in the scope of Article 42 of the Law and, therefore, the relevant members of the assembly used their authority to 'impose penalties specified in the laws' as stipulated in Article 34/e of Law No. 5393, and the mayors attended these assembly decisions and took the necessary steps to implement the assembly decisions specified in Article 38/h of the Law. It is, therefore, considered that the mayors and those authorized have carried out their duties as they have been authorized by law, and there is no need for a preliminary review according to the provisions of Law No. 4483 on the Trial of Public Officials and Other Public Servants."

Objection made to the Council of State

In response to the decision, the Chamber of Architects Diyarbakır branch submitted an objection to the Council of State and stated that in order for a "non-action" decision to be given, the complaint should be abstract and general in nature, not contain individuals or specific events, and the allegations should not be based on information and documents:

"However, in the aforementioned complaint petition, it is explicitly established with documents which mayor is responsible for which unlicensed building and why. Previous correspondence with the municipalities concerning these buildings is presented as evidence. The objection's content in itself is evidence that shows that it is impossible to regard this complaint as 'abstract' in terms of the law."

The objection petition also emphasized that the decision of "no investigation permission" must be given within 45 days as required by law:

"The fact that approximately one year has passed without any need for research for the decision of 'non-action' for which a superficial examination should have been made on the day the complaint letter was received, the Diyarbakır Governorship preparing a preliminary investigation report about the allegations and sending it to the Ministry with a cover letter, and the content of the complaint being considered implicitly acceptable, concrete, and serious, as the complaint states which mayor is responsible for which unlicensed building for what reason. The Ministry of the Interior, instead of making a decision on the merits of the matter, decided not to process the case, and, in this way, it did not hesitate to use a legal guarantee brought to protect public officials from anonymous, unsigned, abstract allegations and accusations in a manner contrary to the law, in favor of the municipal mayors and deputy mayors." 

The objection petition also stated, "The failure to demolish structures built illegally without permits led to the owners of the buildings making millions of lira in unjust gains, and, at the same time, due to the lack of necessary complaints, those involved were not subject to any criminal penalties. In other words, owners of unlicensed buildings were rewarded. These acts constitute an offense of Abuse of Duty for public officials."

Municipalities with trustees appointed

In the local elections held on March 31, 2019, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won 65 municipalities in Kurdish majority provinces. Of the 65 municipalities won by the HDP, 3 were metropolitan municipalities, 5 were provincial, 45 were district, and 12 were town municipalities. However, certificates were not issued for 6 of them, and trustees were appointed to 50 municipalities later to replace the elected mayors.

* August 19, 2019: Van Metropolitan Municipality, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, and Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality 

* September 17, 2019: Diyarbakır Kulp Municipality 

* September 18, 2019: Erzurum Karayazı Municipality 

* October 18, 2019: Hakkari Central Municipality, Hakkari Yüksekova Municipality, and Mardin Nusaybin Municipality 

* October 22, 2019: Van Erciş Municipality, Diyarbakır Kayapınar Municipality, Diyarbakır Bismil Municipality, and Diyarbakır Kocaköy Municipality 

* October 29, 2019: Şırnak Cizre Municipality 

* November 2, 2019: Van Saray Municipality 

* November 4, 2019: Mardin Kızıltepe Municipality 

* November 9, 2019: Van İpekyolu Municipality 

* November 13, 2019: Şırnak İdil Municipality, Diyarbakır Yenişehir Municipality, Diyarbakır Hazro Municipality, and Akpazar Town Municipality in Tunceli's Mazgirt district 

* November 16, 2019: Şanlıurfa Suruç Municipality, Mardin Mazıdağı Municipality, Mardin Derik Municipality, and Mardin Savur Municipality 

* December 7, 2019: Van Muradiye Municipality, Van Özalp Municipality, Van Başkale Municipality, and Batman İkiköprü Town Municipality 

* December 18, 2019: Muş Varto Municipality, Muş Bulanık Municipality, and Muş Erentepe Town Municipality 

* December 21, 2019: Diyarbakır Sur Municipality 

* March 23, 2020: Batman Central Municipality, Diyarbakır Ergani Municipality, Diyarbakır Eğil Municipality, Diyarbakır Lice Municipality, Diyarbakır Silvan Municipality, Bitlis Güroymak Municipality, Halfeli Town Municipality in Iğdır, and Gökçebağ Town Municipality in Siirt 

* May 15, 2020: Iğdır Central Municipality, Siirt Central Municipality, Siirt Baykan Municipality, Siirt Kurtalan Municipality, and Altınova Town Municipality in Muş 

* June 24, 2020: Elazığ Sarıcan Town Municipality 

* July 13, 2020: Ağrı Diyadin Municipality 

* October 2, 2020: Kars Central Municipality 

* March 2, 2021: Erzurum Karaçoban Municipality

 (İY/AS/PE)