HDP 'won't recognize' Turkish trustee to Kurdish city of Diyarbakir

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Tuesday announced it would not recognize a trustee the Turkish Government appointed to run the municipality of Diyarbakir, after putting its two mayors in prison.

In a statement on its website, the HDP labeled the Turkish Government’s move as “arbitrary, illegal, and anti-democratic.”

The HDP said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had nullified the votes of hundreds of thousands of Diyarbakir people who elected the Co-mayors Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli by sending them to a prison in the Turkish city of Kocaeli.

Selahattin Demirtas, the Co-chair of the HDP, warned last week the Turkish Government was preparing to seize the municipal administration of major Kurdish cities, including Diyarbakir.

Turkish police units arrested Kisanak and Anli in a probe related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) last week in Diyarbakir.

“We state once again that the appointment of trustees to municipalities is in contradiction with universal law, basic human rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Local Self-Government which Turkey has put reservations on, and even the junta Constitution,” read the HDP statement.

Turkey’s current constitution, despite small amendments over the years, is part of the 1980 military coup’s legacy.

The Turkish trustee Cumali Atilla, who began working as the Mayor of Diyarbakir on Wednesday, used to be a sub-governor in the Etimesgut district of the capital Ankara.

In September, Turkey removed the elected mayors of 28 municipalities, 24 of them Kurdish, in an unprecedented move since its foundation as a republic.

There are over 5,000 Kurdish politicians in prisons across Turkey, according to the HDP.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany