KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency released a statement regarding the state's appointment of trustees to 24 DBP-held municipalities to replace the co-mayors officially elected by the people.

KCK pointed out that the colonial Turkish state appointed trustees because it does not recognise the existence and will of the Kurdish people, with the ultimate goal of seizing the will of the people.

Describing the appointment of trustees as “an imposition to accept what the state deems proper for the Kurdish people”, KCK said this was the new phase of the colonial system and attacks the Kurds are subject to.

Remarking that attacks on Kurdish municipalities are not new, KCK recalled that a number of mayors had been either arrested or suspended, and hundreds of municipal council members had been jailed before as part of the intensified pressure ongoing for long years to deactivate the municipalities that embrace the Kurdish identity and work to be the local will of the Kurdish people.

KCK underlined that the Turkish state has resorted to any way and method possible to fail the Kurdish municipalities and sever their ties with the people, adding: “When these attacks yielded no results, trustees have been appointed to municipalities for various fabricated excuses, the basic pretext of which is the lie that these municipalities transfer money to the PKK. As we stated before, these municipalities have given no pennies to the PKK organisation, and there exists no single evidence to prove this claim which is grounded on the mindset that the AKP municipalities' practice of making benefits available to their supporters exists in Kurdistan as well.”

KCK said AKP officials and municipalities are thieves, and consider everyone else to be thieves like themselves that seize the money of the people.

"They have been seeking evidences to prove that Kurdish municipalities transfer money to the PKK, but they fail to find one single proof to support this claim. It is not possible for them to find an evidence. The municipalities in Kurdistan are not accused of theft anyway. All the accusations directed at the mayors and council members of Kurdistan municipalities are related with their expressions of their thoughts."

KCK emphasised that the municipalities in Kurdistan have been seized because they embrace the Kurdish people's demands for free and democratic living and manifested a democratic attitude for the realization of these demands. According to KCK, the appointment of trustees is the practice of the Turkish state's decision to crush the Kurdish Freedom Movement that was made on October 30, 2014.

"The disrecognition and suppression of the Kurdish will is a part and enhancement of the Turkish state's genocidal attack against the Kurdish people. There is one single attitude that must be manifested against this policy and onslaught: to step up the resistance. Every word and attitude apart from this approach will mean nothing but encouraging these attacks."

KCK stated that the AKP government wants to leave no single opponent voice, and to entirely suppress and silence the Kurdish people's freedom struggle and democracy powers on the pretext of the July 15's coup attempt.

Describing the appointment of trustees as a consequence of this policy, KCK said the removal of parliamentary immunities was a part of this onslaught aimed at the HDP.

KCK ended the statement by calling upon the Kurdish people and democracy powers to embrace the municipalities that represent the people's will, and to enhance the democracy struggle against AKP government that carries out these attacks.