After Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, the municipalities of Batman, Mardin and Urfa’s Halfeti district were usurped by the government through trustees appointed to replace the elected mayors.

While the DEM Party held its parliamentary group meeting in Mardin, MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli yesterday reiterated his call for Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan to speak in the parliament.

While Bahçeli said ‘I stand by my words’, according to the statements of various AKP officials and journalist Abdülkadir Selvi, who is close to AKP, the trusteeship practice is expected to continue. Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki, DEM Party's Deputy Co-Chair in charge of the Democratic Local Governments Committee and MP for Batman province, evaluated the recent developments to ANF.

Commenting on the recent discussions on a possible process of negotiations, Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki said: “I would like everyone who advocateS for peace in this country to know that we will respond positively to this promise of peace. Since the day we were founded, including all the parties whose legacy we inherited, we have defended a solution to the fundamental problems of this country, especially the Kurdish question, through democratic and peaceful means. We have advocated for a solution through dialogue. For dozens of years and today, we have defended the same things. No one can say that we are pursuing an anti-peace politics. No one can say that the political tradition we represent is an obstacle to peace.

We welcomed Devlet Bahçeli’s remarks, which were also supported by Erdoğan, and we said that we attributed a meaning to them. But these words were not maintained. The government has taken no further steps to solve the problems of this country through democratic and peaceful means. It is not possible to say that there has been any development other than a meeting between Mr Öcalan and his nephew, our Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan. When he met with Mr Öcalan, he said that the isolation imposed on him continued. He also said that other steps to be taken by the government on this issue would be decisive.”

Tiryaki continued: “Unfortunately, instead of taking a step to increase the hope for peace in society, the government first appointed a trustee to Esenyurt, where a Kurdish mayor was in charge, and then to the municipalities of Mardin, Batman and Halfeti. There is a saying ‘one's actions speak for themselves’. In this sense, what the government is doing is not something that will serve social peace. It is not something that will raise the hope for peace in this country. On the one hand, you say ‘Let Öcalan come, let him speak in the DEM Party group, let him speak in parliament’; on the other hand, you appoint trustees to the will of the Kurdish people. This shows that the government is not really sincere.

If they want to raise hope for peace, there is only one thing for them to do; to give up the trustee politics, end the isolation and take a series of steps to resolve the Kurdish question peacefully, starting with the creation of ceasefire conditions. Only then will the people really think that the government is sincere. With the appointment of trustees, we have seen that the government's preference is again not in favour of peace, but in favour of the politics of conflict. The resistance continues in Kurdistan. We have been in Batman for two days. Thousands of people have been on the streets since yesterday saying ‘no to the trustee’, resisting.”

Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki also evaluated Bahçeli's defence of his own words in yesterday's parliamentary group meeting and said: “We said that we as a party attributed a value to these words from the very first moment. We said that we held the hand they extended. We do not have any problems in this respect. Of course, we support every step they will take in this regard. But the problem is that the government's actions and words do not match.”