Silopi is one of the last municipalities in Northern Kurdistan that is run by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). After the HDP achieved a great victory in the local elections on 31 March 2019 in 65 cities and towns, a wave of "coups" against the elected representatives started. Mayors were covered with constructed procedures and imprisoned, and regime officials were appointed as trustees in their place. As a result, 47 of the 65 HDP-run municipalities are now under direct regime control. In another six local governments, legal tricks have been used to refuse to issue mandates to the HDP, and mayoral positions have been given to the AKP instead. As a result, only twelve municipalities now have mayors from the HDP.

Trustee regimes rule through clientelism and corruption

The trustees began to build a system of corruption and clientelism. Large parts of the municipal institutions were sold at rock-bottom prices to AKP supporters and the municipalities were plunged into deep debt. The Kurdish towns and cities are systematically ruined in this way.

HDP municipalities are an example of transparency

While everything is done behind closed doors in the municipalities under appointed trustees or AKP rule, the HDP relies on absolute transparency for its remaining local governments. The HDP administrations see themselves as a direct expression of society's grassroots democratic opinion-forming process. That is why they inform society about all processes within the municipalities. One example of this is the HDP administration of the Silopi district in Şırnak province. Here, the municipality publishes its budget every six months on billboards throughout the district.

In a Twitter post, the municipality said: "We (will) continue to share the income and expenditure of our municipality with the inhabitants of the region in order to live up to our promise of transparency.”