Erdogan to move Kurdish provincial capitals

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday announced his administration would move the provincial capitals of Sirnak and Hakkari in the Kurdish region.

“Urban affairs is my job. Why? I used to be a mayor [of Istanbul]. I know which place to designate as a [province],” Erdogan told an audience of businesspeople in Turkey’s capital Ankara.

According to the plan Erdogan revealed, the provincial capital of Sirnak Province which is on the border with the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) would be moved to the town of Cizre.

In the strictly unitary Republic of Turkey, the central government in Ankara has the sole authority to draw provincial borders and designate administrative entities.

Cizre’s population stood at 132,000 before last year’s clashes between Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters and the Turkish army that brought large-scale urban destruction and loss of civilian life.

Sirnak, 63,000 before the months-long urban clashes and round-the-clock curfews, would then be downgraded to a township, one of seven in the province.

In the neighboring Hakkari, the southeastern most province of Turkey on the border with the Kurdistan Region and Iranian Kurdistan, the town of Yuksekova (Gever) would become the provincial capital.

Large sections of all four population centers of Sirnak, Cizre, Hakkari, and Yuksekova saw the destruction of hundreds of buildings and apartments as the Turkish army deployed heavy weapons during the 2015-2016 clashes.

Yuksekova and Cizre are on plains as Hakkari and Sirnak stand among high mountains, thus harder to defend against Kurdish rebels who fight for self-rule.

Last year, the government expelled elected mayors of all four areas, allied with the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), from their posts and imprisoned them.

In August 2016, the Parliament did not pass a previous draft law to change and rename Sirnak’s and Hakkari’s provincial capitals.

The HDP and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have voiced objection to the plans on the grounds they serve Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) electoral interests.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany 

(Kurdistan24 Ankara bureau contributed to this report)