Co-mayor  of Cizre, Kadir Kunur said they will send away the trustees that have usurped the DBP municipalities in the upcoming local elections and added, “Our people will respond in kind to dirty politics in the local elections.”

Kadir Kunur was elected co-mayor of Cizre in the 2014 municipal elections with 97% of the vote, and was removed from office by the Interior Ministry in December 2016, two years after he took office.

Like in other usurped DBP municipalities, a trustee was appointed to the Cizre Municipality after Kunur was removed.

Kunur spoke to the ANF about the municipal elections and said they approach the elections differently and with more care.

Kunur pointed out that a process of disbanding has been launched against their party in the last three years, and that the state continues to confiscate the gains made in every area.

Kunur said: “But our preparations for these elections will be a response to the policies implemented against our party for the last three years. Like our people embraced our party in the April 16 referendum and the last parliamentary elections, they will respond clearly to these dirty politics with resolution in these elections. They can’t take away the will of our people or our local administrations through usurpations.”

“POLICIES TO DISBAND US WILL BE VOIDED”

Kunur said the current process can be read from history as well. Mentioning the Eastern Reformation Plan issued in 1925 against Kurds and people who want democracy, Kunur said: “Once again, they want to disband those who want democracy, peace and togetherness.

They want to build a system with a single nation, a single faith and a single language. And we are seeing the results of that now. They are making preparations for such a law. To take away our local administrations, they even say it openly that they must do all they can to prevent our party taking the municipalities.

And we wholeheartedly say that our people will respond to these statements. They may pressure the people under the guise of increasing security, our people will defend their will. The people will void hese policies to disband us.”

Kunur said they have started preparations for local elections: “So we are starting to prepare as the local governments. This policy of ours is very clear. We have accumulated experience in this area. Despite all the difficult circumstances, despite the psychological warfare against our party and our local administrations in particular, we will continue our work.”

“WE WILL BE READY FOR ALL HARDSHIPS”

Kunur said there may be shortcomings and hitches along the way: “But we will be ready for any hardship, and we will face the elections strong. The trustees weren’t just appointed to replace our co-mayrs.

They wanted to appoint trustees against the language, culture and will of this people. We haven’t given up our cause just because trustees were appointed. We will send these trustees away again with the elections. The trustees have failed to achieve results.”

Kunur said the people used to visit the municipality like it was their own home: “They used to come, resolve their issues with ease and do their business. They didn’t have to know anybody to get things done. Because they saw the municipality as their home. But with the trustees this changed completely.

We can’t even compare the services. The people are angry against these antidemocratic practices. They build roads in a capitalistic logic, they control all the press and keep talking about what they did.

The trustee has taken our city backwards. Of course we also had shortcomings, we will criticize ourselves for our people. But the people saw both our practices and the trustees’, and they are not happy.”