The trustees appointed by the AKP/Palace regime to the DBP municipalities across North Kurdistan in defiance of the people's will are targeting the values of the Kurdish people as the first thing to do after their assignment.

The trustee at the Municipality of Batman has recently ordered the demolition of the graves of PKK guerrillas, and fired the employees that refused to fulfill this order.

Tahir Bal, chief of the Batman Municipality Department of Cemeteries for 9 years, stated that the appointed trustee has fired hundreds of personnel who refused to obey his orders that constitute an aggression on the values of the Kurdish people. Bal told that:

"WE REFUSED TO FULFILL THIS ORDER AGAINST HUMANE AND MORAL VALUES"

"The first thing the trustee did was to ban the transportation of PKK guerrillas' bodies with the funeral vehicles of the municipality. On seeing that he would not be able to hinder their burial in this way, he decided to demolish the graves of PKK guerrillas in order to break the will of families and the people.

A notice sent to us by the trustee one and a half months ago said that the writings, names and code-names on the tombstones of guerrillas contained organization (PKK) propaganda, that they would file a criminal complaint against the families for this reason, and that the graves would be demolished in the event that these tombstones are not changed, instructing us to inform the families on this issue.

We conveyed this information to the families who however refused to touch the tombstones of their children's graves. Around 1,5 weeks later, we received another notice from the trustee which instructed the workers in the Department of Cemeteries to change the mentioned tombstones which families refused to remove. In response, we stated that we would not obey this order because it was be against humane and moral principles to change the tombstones outside the knowledge of families. The same notice also wrote that the personnel refusing to fulfill the order would be subjected to legal action."

"PRESS MEMBER FORCED TO GATHER INFORMATION FOR ANTI-TERROR POLICE"

Bal continued, telling the followings: "After the determination of 23 graves for demolition, the trustee assigned us with the duty of fastening other such graves, which we also refused to do. A personnel at the Press Department was also instructed to take photos of the graves not established by anti-terror department of police, and to gather information on the families of the PKK members in question, which they, too, refused to do, and for which he was fired as well a few days ago."

"NOBODY SHOULD BE SLAVE TO AKP FOR A FEW PENNIES"

Tahir Bal also stated that the fired workers were threatened to not resort to legal remedies for the dismissals, saying: "More than 200 workers of the Batman Municipality have been fired since the appointment of the trustee, and almost all of them pursued legal remedies. Despite the fact that this legal process does not progress under the current OHAL (State of Emergency) conditions but we will continue to push this method. The trustee and his team threaten to report our dismissal as "due to statutory decree" in the event that we seek legal assistance on this matter. They can also form a basis for this unlawfulness because all the laws and prosecutors are under their command. I call upon the municipal employees to not to be a slave to the trustee and the AKP for a few pennies."