Tensions mount as pro-Kurdish mayor in Hakkari replaced

Mehmet Sıddık Akış, the co-mayor of the Hakkari province and member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, was arrested by security forces and replaced by a government-appointed trustee.

BIA News Desk

Tensions mount as pro-Kurdish mayor in Hakkari replaced — Photo: Mezopotamya Agency

In Hakkari, Turkey, the municipality building was stormed by police at around 11 pm on June 2. The building was surrounded by hundreds of officers, who blocked all roads leading to and from the area. The police raided the offices and broke into the building. The co-mayor, Mehmet Sıddık Akış, who was elected to his position in the March 31 local elections, was arrested the same night in the province of Van on terror-related charges.

The Ministry of Interior issued a statement announcing that a government-appointed trustee will replace Akış as mayor of the municipality. The ministry also accused Akış of holding a high-level position in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. The charges against Akış include "leading an armed terrorist organization", "being a member of an armed terrorist organization", and "making propaganda for an armed terrorist organization".

Pro-Kurdish mayors being arrested on terrorism charges and replaced by government-appointed trustees is nothing new in Turkey. After the 2019 local elections in Turkey, controversy ensued as trustees were appointed to replace mayors of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) – later renamed DEM Party – in various municipalities in the southeast. Overall, HDP was stripped of 48 out of the 65 municipalities they won in the 2019 local elections. The Turkish government claimed that these measures were necessary due to alleged links between the ousted mayors and the PKK. Critics, including the HDP and international observers, condemned these appointments as undemocratic and an infringement on local governance. They argued that the elected mayors were removed without due process and that the move undermined the democratic principles of representation and accountability.

Reactions

The DEM Party strongly condemned the arrest of their co-mayor, Mehmet Sıddık Akış, and the seizure of the municipality, calling it a "coup d'état" and a "putschist and trustee mentality". The party's statement read: "Every time the will of the people defeats the government, they resort to the methods they know best: illegal disregard of the popular decision through coup d'état." The party rejected the trustee approach and called on all supporters of democracy to take a stance against this "coup" and defend the will of the people.

Sezgi Tanrıkulu, an MP for the biggest opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), also described the move as a “coup”. “The appointment of these trustees is illegal and goes against the people's will! It is a coup attempt against the will of the people. It is a method they have been trying since 2016 and has not yielded any results. We have opposed the trustee practice from the moment the bill came to parliament. We opposed it in 2016 and we also opposed the trustees appointed right after the 2019 elections.”

Speaking at a party meeting, Özgür Özel, the leader of CHP noted: “This is also why they [the ruling AKP] lost during the March 31 elections. They do not respect the choice of the people!” The party members in the meeting responded with loud applause and chanting the slogan “Rights, law, justice!”.

Nacho Sánchez Amor, MEP and Permanent Rapporteur on Turkey, noted: “Blatant attack to democratic principles & total disregard to people's will: fastest way for the Turkish gov to demolish any hope of accession revival.”

Some, however, welcomed the development. The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli congratulated the Interior Ministry for the detention of Hakkari co-mayor Mehmet Sıddık Akış. “Nominating a terrorist as a candidate in the March 31 elections is first and foremost an attempt against democracy, circumventing the law to render it dysfunctional, and preparing to pit the state and the local people against each other,” Bahçeli said in his speech at the parliament. He and the MHP have long been propagating for the full closure and ban of the DEM Party.

*DEM Party MPs joined sit-in protest in Hakkari (Photo: MA)

Shady legal framework

According to the news website T24, the prosecutor in the 2014 case on which Akış's dismissal was based, is listed as a “FETÖ fugitive” on the Interior Ministry's “wanted for terrorism” list. According to the news report, this prosecutor is being tried in the first degree on the grounds of his role in cases such as “illegal wiretaps, unlawful evictions, military espionage, Oda TV case” filed against several judges and prosecutors in the “purge” after July 15, 2016, unsuccessful coup attempt.

According to information obtained by T24, the case indictment against 14 people, including Akış, was prepared within the scope of illegal investigations known as "KCK operations". The prosecutor in question (referred to only as D.Y.), who worked in Istanbul during the period when the AKP and Gülen movement (FETÖ) still cooperated, is among the 30 former judges and prosecutors who have been on the Interior Ministry's “gray list” since 2023 as part of the investigations known as “FETÖ cases” after July 15.

Protests banned

Right after the arrest and replacement of Akış, the governor's office announced on its website that all protests and gatherings in the province were banned for the following 10 days. Later, protests were also banned in the following ten provinces: Van, Diyarbakır, Mersin, Batman, Şırnak, Siirt, Bitlis, Ağrı, Muş and Iğdır. All of these are provinces with large Kurdish populations.

Governors justified the bans with phrases such as "ensuring national security", "protecting public order", "preventing crime", "preventing the spread of violence", and "ensuring the security of life and property of citizens".

Despite the bans, a large number of people, including several DEM Party MPs, a delegation from CHP, and representatives of civil society organizations started a sit-in protest in front of the Hakkari Governorate.

This afternoon, as more people gathered in Hakkari to protest the new trustee, the police intervened using pepper spray and plastic bullets. Some protesters were reported injured. Co-leader of DEM Party, Tülay Hatimoğulları was also present and made a speech at the demonstration.

(DT)