Trustee has library named after Celadet Elî Bedîrxan demolished

The trustee of the Kurdish city of Siirt, appointed by the Turkish Minister of the Interior in mid-May, had the library named after Celadet Elî Bedîrxan demolished.

The governor Ali Fuat Atik, who was appointed trustee to the municipality of the Siirt province on 15 May to replace the dismissed co-mayors of the HDP, has demolished the municipal library in the Güres Caddesi named after Celadet Elî Bedîrxan.

The library was already the subject of public interest in 2016, when the then trustee had the Kurdish language sign at the entrance and all Kurdish books removed. The sign was put back up after the HDP won the local elections last March.

It is not known on what grounds the demolition of the library was ordered. The governor, who was appointed as trustee, had photos of President Tayyip Erdogan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu hung up in his room as a first official act. As a next step, ten municipal workers were dismissed despite existing protection against dismissal.

The elected co-mayors Berivan Helen Işık and Peymandara Turhan of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were suspended by the Turkish Ministry of the Interior and were placed under house arrest after four days in police custody.

The Kurdish intellectual Celadet Elî Bedîrxan was editor of the Hawar magazine, which was first published in Damascus in 1932.

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