The democratically elected and unlawfully deposed co-mayor of the Karayazı district in Eruzurum province, Burhanettin Şahin of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party), has been imprisoned. On Thursday a court in the province of Erzurum ordered the politician to be remanded in custody. On which basis Şahin was jailed, is unclear. It is suspected that a so-called terror trial has been initiated.

Mayor Burhanettin Şahin, who was removed from office about a year ago at the instigation of the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, was arrested on Monday in a raid by the military police (gendarmerie). Security forces had also stormed the apartments of Mahmut Çimendağ, Fesih Polat and Adil Bingöl. Until yesterday, the four were held by the district gendarmerie command. Yesterday evening they were sent to the Erzurum Closed Prison after appearing in court. The counterpart of Şahin, co-mayor Melike Göksu, has been in custody for a year.

One year of trustee administration in Northern Kurdistan

On August 19, 2019, trustees were appointed in the Kurdish metropolitan cities of Amed (Diyarbakır), Van and Mardin and the elected mayors of the HDP were deposed. This seizure of power by the AKP at the municipal level marked the beginning of the appointment of 48 trustees to HDP-ruled municipalities. Eighteen of the deposed mayors are in prison, and many have already been sentenced to long prison terms.