On 19 August 2019, trustees were appointed to municipalities in the Kurdish cities of Amed (Diyarbakır), Van and Mardin and the elected mayors of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (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. Seventeen of the deposed mayors are in prison, many of whom have already been sentenced to long prison terms.

A protest action was held in Mardin on this occasion. The rally was attended by HDP deputies Nimetullah Erdoğmuş, Ebru Günay, Meral Danış Beştaş, Pero Dündar, İmam Taşçıer, Dersim Dağ, Hişyar Özsoy and Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, the co-mayor of Kars, Ayhan Bilgen, and the co-chair of the Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) Saliha Aydeniz. In addition, members of the Peace Mothers Initiative, Free Women's Movement (TJA), HDP mayors and many individuals took part in the protest rally in front of the building of the HDP provincial branch in Mardin.

Bilgen: Local democratisation means liberation

In his speech, HDP politician Ayhan Bilgen, who remains in office as co-mayor of Kars, pointed out that a total of 48 city councils are now under trustee administration, and 17 mayors are imprisoned. He said: "The liberation of humanity lies in local democratization. To oppose and centralize against local democracy, against democratic local governments, means nothing other than the enforcement of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism does not recognize the will of the people."

Beştaş: Testimony of the will of millions of people

HDP parliamentary group deputy chair Meral Danış-Beştaş pointed out that the trustee administration regime has collapsed. She recalled that the co-mayor of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district, Remziye Yaşar, had been imprisoned for sharing a Tolstoy quote against the war alone. She continued: "During this period, not only mayors but also members of local councils were deposed. The will of four million people living in the cities ruled by trustees was annulled. If anyone wonders why trustees have been appointed, they should look at the 2014 decision of the National Security Council where a collapse plan' was prepared word for word.

"Biggest robbery in Turkey's history"

Beştaş referred in her speech to the misdemeanours of the trustees, referring to the occupied municipalities, as in Mardin, which have been systematically looted. She called this action "the biggest robbery in the history of Turkey". She continued: "Everything that belonged to the city became the means of bribery and corruption of Governor Mustafa Yaman. This has now been proven. We have documented and published the injustice, corruption and bribery under the rule of Governor Mustafa Yaman, who was appointed as a trustee. The municipal employees dismissed for corruption after the elections on 31 March 2019 have been reinstated by the trustee who continued his dirty work at the point where he had stopped. Nevertheless, the report of the Ministry of the Interior's property inspectors was full of praise for Yaman and describes his actions as a 'good model'. The city administration has been turned into a prostitution network, and the city's real estate has been distributed to relatives. If we want to see what trustee means, we have to look at Mardin.”