Turkish government to seize 28 Kurdish municipalities

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s Minister of Interior Affairs Suleyman Soylu announced on Friday that the government plans to seize 28 Kurdish municipalities.

“In 15 days, the administration of 28 municipalities will no longer be in the hands of the terrorists, their administrations will no longer be under instructions from the Qandil,” Soylu said in a meeting with governors in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

“People devoted to the star and the crescent [the flag of Turkey] will be administering,” he added.

Qandil is the name of a mountain range in the Kurdistan Region where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is based.

Turkish authorities are accusing Kurdish mayors of aiding the outlawed PKK.

Kurdish municipalities are headed by co-mayors, a male and a female, in accordance with the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) regulations that emphasize gender egalitarianism.

DBP holds 100 municipalities, including three metropolitan ones won in 2014 Turkish local elections.

Soylu did not specify which municipalities would be seized.

The Turkish Parliament passed a bill last August that gave power to the Council of Ministers to remove elected local officials and appoint its trustees.

The Turkish Minister went on to refer to the government trustees as representatives of the “national will.”

In response to the minister, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas slammed the seizure of municipalities.

Demirtas labeled the seizure as “unconstitutional” and called on the Kurdish constituency not to recognize government-appointed trustees.

The government had already forced 26 elected mayors out of office according to a July 14 statement by the former Interior Minister Efkan Ala who resigned at the end of August.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Reporting by Ari Khalidi)