After trustees were appointed to 4 DBP municipalities in Van, the municipalities without appointed trustees are pressured via various methods. One of the municipalities in grips is the Çaldıran Municipality.

Co-chair Suna Atabay’s arrest is widely seen as a continuation of this pressure, while another interesting development in the municipality was the State of Emergency (OHAL in Turkish) Bureau, set up after the declaration of the state of emergency, demanding bank account information from municipality workers.

Authorities from the 'State of Emergency Bureau' have called DBP’s Çaldıran Municipality and demanded the Registrar give them the available information of workers.

The information was shared by third parties over WhatsApp, after which the same bureau started calling the workers and telling them, “There is information that you have been transferring money to terrorist organizations. Give us your bank account details, we will run inquiries.”

Municipality workers were suspicious, they took action and informed the municipality authorities.

Municipality officials decided to take legal action on the matter after the account information was demanded by the 'State of Emergency Bureau' and took initiatives to that end. Appeals have been filed with the police but they haven’t been answered yet. The municipality officials can’t find a clear answer to whether this is a scam or an official initiative and have asked the workers not to share their information with anyone.

The municipality officials say they are following the situation.