20 August 2019 10:35
The appointing of trustees contrary to the popular will in Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van was protested in many provinces with press statements. The police attacked citizens in many places while trying to stifle the protest.
Photograph: AA
The Ministry of Interrior dismissed Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Ahmet Turk and Van Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor from their posts. According to the statement made by the Ministry, Diyarbakır Governer Hasan BAsri Güeloğlu was appointed as a trustee to Diyarbakır while Mardin Governer Mustafa Yaman was appointed a trustee to Mardin and Van Governer Mehmet Emin Bilmez was appointed a trustee to Van's Mayorship.
Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı and Hülya Alökmen Uyanık recieved (63%), Ahmet Türk and Figen Altındağ recieved (56%) and Bedia Özgökçe Ertan and Mustafa Avcı recieved (54%) of the votes and were elected as co-mayors of the People's Democratic Party (HDP).
The appointing of trustees contrary to the popular will in Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van was protested in many provinces with press statements. The police attacked citizens in many places while trying to stifle the protest.
The populace, responding to a call by the HDP Diyarbakır Province Organization to march on the municipal building to protest the ousting of the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Co-Mayors and the appointing of trustees in their place, came under police attack with tear gas and pressurized water. The crowd, including, along with representatives of bodies and trade unions in the city, HDP Diyarbakır Parliamentarian Musa Farisoğulları, wanted to make a statement in front of the town hall. With the police wishing to prevent the making of a statement, a discussion took place for a while between Musa Farisoğulları and police officers. But later the police fired pressurized water at the crowd including elderly women.
It was not long before the police attacked citizens with punches and kicks, too. The roads leading to the town hall were closed by rapid reaction force teams. Citizens who were prevented from heading to the front of the town hall vented their ire in slogans.
With police waiting at barricades in many places around the city, helicopters were also seen patrolling the sky.
Denying permission to those wishing to protest the trustee in front of the town hall, a group stated to be relatives of the fallen and war heroes was permitted to make a statement. This situation also provoked a strong reaction from those who had wished to protest the trustee. The police again attacked those who displayed their outrage. (Diyarbakır/EVRENSEL)
Following the ousting of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Co-Mayor Selçuk Mızraklı and the appointing of a trustee in his place, Mızraklı and people from the HDP set out on a march to the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Town Hall. Setting out from the HDP provincial building, the march continued as far as Koşuyolu Park eliciting cheers and slogans from surrounding citizens. The HDP procession, blocked here by the police, was not permitted to march on.
The police cited as grounds for banning the march the ban on actions and protests in the city taken by Provincial Governor Hasan Basri Güzeloğlu who was appointed trustee to Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality. Following a lengthy wait, Mızraklı and the contingent from the HDP went to the party’s provincial building and wanted to make a statement here. Blockading the provincial building with rapid reaction force teams and shields, the police denied permission for the making of an announcement here, too. At this, the HDP contingent started a sit-down protest. Following a long wait, the HDP group made a statement in front of the party building.
Declaring the appointing of trustees to municipalities to be a “political coup”, HDP parliamentarian Meral Danış Beştaş commented, “The AKP has taken a further decision that is preparing its own end. When we said, with them repeating the Istanbul elections after 31 March, ‘The AKP is committing suicide,’ they saw the AKP fall from power with an 800,000 majority.”
Responding to the Interior Minister’s remark about, “People who do not know how a mayor is made and by whom,” Beştaş responded to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu as follows: “You may not know, but our co-mayors were elected by more than 500,000 votes. The whole world and Diyarbakır knows who they were elected by. When we submitted our candidacy, we did so in accordance with constitutional legislation. But, in the Interior Minister’s comment in question, there is neither recognition of the Constitution, nor electoral law nor of rights.”
Recalling that Mızraklı was elected with 63% of the vote, Beştaş, who noted that the decision was unlawful, stated, “They are afraid of the people. There is no greater force than the people. Trustees may have entered the municipalities, but they cannot be Diyarbakır’s mayors. They will eat tons of sweet pastry. Of course, they aren’t eating it, they’re engaging in theft. The AKP’s other name is theft.”
Stating that public opinion must not remain silent in the face of the appointing of trustees, Beştaş urged, “Be it Diyarbakır, Antalya, İstanbul or Hakkari. This is not just our issue. The AKP, which appoints trustees here today, may appoint trustees to İzmir, İstanbul and Ankara. We must combine our forces.”
Also railing against the arrest of 418 people in operations targeting HDP members, Beştaş noted, “Those who appoint trustees are staging operations to stifle reaction. Take our friends out and take your trustee out. He cannot illegitimately look the people in the eye for a single day there, he can only take a bath behind closed doors. You can take 418 people, but you cannot arrest 480,000 people or six million people. There is no prison to hold the 25 million HDP supporters. (Diyarbakır/MA)
In Istanbul’s Taksim, the police staged an attack in the effort to prevent HDP supporters from protesting the appointment of trustees.
HDP Istanbul Parliamentarian Ahmet Şık tried to pull a person they were trying to arrest from the police’s hands and suffered police violence at this instant. Seven people, including HDP Party Assembly member Nesimi Aday, HDP Ümraniye Sub-Province Co-Chair Damla Savcı, party administrators Sıtkı Tatlıcı and Vedat Fidan and three people whose names have not been determined were arrested.
In Ankara, where the appointing of trustees to three HDP municipalities was protested, the police attacked the assembly and arrested nine people.
HDP Antalya Parliamentarian Kemal Bülbül, civil society organizations and labour and professional chambers attended the action staged in Sakarya Square by HDP Ankara Provincial Organization. The police, denying permission to the assembly, made announcements calling for dispersal. The police then attacked the assembly with tear gas, shields and truncheons. Following the attack, Peoples' Democratic Congress Ankara Co-Spokesperson Fatma Kılıçarslan, HDP Ankara Province Co-Chair Hüseyin Gevher, Democratic Alevi Association Mamak Branch Co-Chair Hasan Altun, HDP Parliamentary Assembly member Yağmur Yurtsever and HDP members Betül Koca, Ecem Polat, Mustafa Bayraktar, Mustafa Uğur Akkaya and Zarif Kesiciler were arrested. (EVRENSEL DAILY)
(Translated by Tim DRAYTON)
Bülent Falakaoğlu
Hakkı Özdal
