Interior Ministry Dismisses Co-Mayors of Five HDP Municipalities

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Interior Ministry has dismissed the co-mayors of the Iğdır and Siirt cities, two districts in Siirt and one town in Muş.

Iğdır Co-Mayors Yaşar Akkuş and Eylem Çelik, Siirt Co-Mayors Berivan Helen Işık and Peyman Dara Turhan, Baykan District Co-Mayors Ramazan Sarsılmaz and Özden Gülmez and Kurtalan District Co-Mayors Baran Akgül and Esmer Baran, Altınova (Muş) Town Mayor Casim Budak have been replaced with trustees. The police have detained the co-mayors, as well as Eşref Tekin, an employee at the Siirt Municipality.

In the local elections in March 2019, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won 65 municipalities in the mostly Kurdish-populated eastern and southeastern provinces. The Interior Ministry has now taken over 44 of them. Also, six HDP politicians who won elections were not granted certificates of election due to having been dismissed from public posts by statutory decrees.

CLICK - All Articles on HDP Mayors' Removal from Office

According to the Law No. 5393 on Municipalities, the ministry has the authority to dismiss a mayor if there is a criminal investigation against him or her until the investigation is concluded. It said in a written statement that it has dismissed the mayors as per Article 47 and made new appointments as per Articles 45 and 46.

Siirt Governor Ali Fuat Atik, Baykan District Governor Mehmet Tunç and Kurtalan District Mayor İhsan Emre Aydın and Muş's Korkut District Governor Hasan Sadebıyık have been appointed as deputy mayors in their respective areas.

Article 47 of Law No. 5393

Municipal organs or members thereof in respect of which or whom an investigation or prosecution is initiated on account of an offence connected with their duties may be suspended from office by the Minister of Interior pending the final judgment.

The decision of suspension from office shall be reviewed every two months. If the
continuation of suspension from office no longer serves the public interest, it shall be lifted.
The decision on suspension from office shall be lifted in the cases where no prosecution is initiated, or the public case is dismissed or ends in acquittal, or lapses due to general amnesty, or ends in a conviction for an offence which does not require removal from office.

A suspended mayor shall receive two thirds of his monthly allowance for the period of
suspension from office and continue to enjoy his other social rights and benefits.

(EMK/VK)

Interior Ministry Dismisses Co-Mayors of Five HDP Municipalities

İstanbul