Bozova Municipality was among those where the will of the people had been confiscated and the district governorate appointed a de facto trustee, and today in the early morning hours it was raided by AKP’s police. As the search continues in the Municipality Service Building, municipal personnel aren't allowed into the building and all departments and offices are being searched by the police. In line with the decision by DBP Headquarters, the municipalities of Bozova, Halfeti and Viranşehir that have been appointed de facto trustees have refused to work with the trustees and they haven’t worked with them since. The Urfa Governorate sent official documents to municipalities through district governors on September 20 and the district governors were unofficially appointed to municipalities. but the DBP municipalities refused to work with them.

PREPARATIONS TO DIRECTLY APPOINT TRUSTEES TO THE MUNICIPALITY

As a response, the Urfa Governorate has ordered a board of audit on grounds that the services had been interrupted and the municipality is searched by the AKP forces. They want to directly appoint a trustee to the municipality which is surrounded as of now. Municipality workers aren’t allowed in and the raid is claimed to be searching for bombs so the audit board can carry out their work. The office designated for the audit board is made an excuse to appoint a direct trustee to the municipality.

“THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE AWAY OUR MUNICIPALITY WITH EXCUSES”

Bozova Co-mayor Zeynel Taş spoke to the ANF and said: “The police are searching our building right now, the excuse they use is the baseless claims of the Urfa Governorate that we are not working with the de facto appointed trustee and the services are not carried out. After the search, the audit board will investigate and claim that services aren’t carried out to give an excuse for appointing a direct trustee. We said this on the day these de facto trustees were appointed to our municipalities. With this, they will only hinder the services visible to the public. And today they are using the very excuse and trying to confiscate our municipality, because ‘services are interrupted’”.

Taş said it was preparations for the actual appointment of the trustee and added: “On entry, they checked our IDs too, and then we were allowed in. The so-called audit board will supposedly look at what happened in the municipality since the day the trustee was appointed. This is just preparation for the trustee to be appointed directly. With a justification against the municipality by the audit board, they are trying to directly appoint a trustee to the municipality.”

MALAZGİRT CO-MAYOR DETAINED

Muş’s Malazgirt Municipality was also raided in the morning hours. Co-mayor Halis Coşkun was detained. Search in the municipality building continues.