Reactions continue against the seizure of the municipalities of Mardin, Batman and Halfeti, which were won by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in the 31 March local elections.

Batman

DEM Party co-chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chair Keskin Bayındır came together at Batman Provincial Organisation building and marched to the town hall.

Co-Mayor of Batman, Gülistan Sönük, said, “The municipalities of Halfeti, Mardin and Batman were unlawfully usurped. This municipality is the labour of the people, the labour of our party for 40 years, the labour of the children of this people. Its usurpation is unacceptable. The occupiers should know well that it is not easy to usurp the will of the people and women. We will not bow down. There was 3 billion TL debt when we took over the municipality. The Kurdish people are being told, ‘There is a piece of bread left on your table, I will take that too. I will destroy your language and culture’. They say to women, ‘We will not allow you to govern yourselves’. We will no longer allow you to ignore our will. We will not allow you to take away the future of young people and women. We will not step back until this unlawful decision is reversed and this municipality is put into the service of the people. Either resistance or resistance. None of our friends will step back unless this decision is withdrawn.”

Speaking after, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Keskin Bayındır said, “The Kurdish people, the people of Kurdistan, do not accept this. We will reject and resist this. Let us claim our will on the streets, in the neighbourhoods, everywhere. Let our people claim their will everywhere in Kurdistan. We will make every inch of Kurdistan a place of struggle and resistance. These invaders have revealed their plan, which is to attack the Kurdish people and prevent their success. We saw Erdoğan and Bahçeli's plans today in Batman and Mardin. Our response to you is struggle and resistance until the end, until success, until we send them away.”

DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said: “This is not only a political coup but also a judicial coup. On 12 September, they carried out a coup with the military. Now they are stealing the will of the people with the batons of the police. The Kurdish people as one body stand against this coup. Together with other peoples and women in Turkey, we will raise the voice of the struggle for freedom and democracy. The will of the people will be on these streets. We will protect this will together.”

Tuncer Bakırhan recalled MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli's handshake with DEM Party members in the Parliament and said, “These conspirators, thieves and those who planned the liquidation extended their hands to us. We also extended our hands. We said that maybe they would negotiate; that they would make honourable peace with the Kurdish people, whom they had failed to destroy through liquidation, denial and oppression for years. But we saw that they were organising a liquidation, planning how they would appoint trustees. Again, they were planning how to deny the Kurdish people.”

Stating that they will definitely take back the municipalities, Bakırhan said, “One day we will make you a signboard party in these lands. We will make you unable to hang your signboard. We call on everyone to fight against this trustee mentality.”

People continue to wait in front of the municipality. 

Mardin

Protests also continue in front of the usurped Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, where residents and politicians have gathered, including the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar and politician Sebahat Tuncel.

Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar said, “We are facing the result of the colonial politics of the AKP-MHP government and the centuries-old state mind in the Kurdistan geography. There is a very clear picture; AKP's politics is rotten. AKP-MHP is looking for ways and methods to govern the country with only a handful of capital. In the 31 March local elections, every municipality won in Kurdistan, every municipality lost by the AKP-MHP, carried Turkey to the light. With the municipalities won by the DEM Party, we did not only express that the Kurdish people won. We did not only say that we won a seat. We expressed that we made the AKP, which dragged the country into the abyss, lose.”

Uçar continued: “There is a special war policy carried out through the security forces. The AKP-MHP, which is trying to drive women and youth away from their own identity through drugs and prostitution, appointed the first trustee in Hakkari. This is a coup d'état. It is both a legal coup and a political coup. Who makes a coup? Those who have no legitimacy left and those who are defeated in the face of the people. Therefore, it is not us who have been defeated and lost, but the AKP-MHP and the hundred-year-old state mind. We were here yesterday, and we are here today. On 31 March, the picture that emerged from the elections was the name of the fact that we would not allow special war policies. It was the name of not allowing war policies. It was the name of not allowing policies of isolation. Our friends continue to resist in Batman, Mardin, Esenyurt and everywhere. Maybe we will be here for days. Ahmet Türk left very valuable traces in the politics of Turkey and Kurdistan. No one should justify the sentences announced by the Ministry of Interior. We do not recognise any decision that the AKP-MHP government and the judiciary put before us. Therefore, the trustee is null and void. What is real is the Kurdish people and their resistance in Kurdistan. We were here, we will continue to be here.”

Urfa

In the Halfeti district of Urfa, DEM Party politicians, together with a large number of people, reacted to the usurpation of the municipality.

DEM Party Provincial Co-Chair Bekir Karakeçili said, “On 4 November 2016, a coup was carried out against the will of the people. The people did and will protect their will. This is enemy law. Those who call Mr Öcalan to the Parliament appoint trustees to Mr Öcalan's district. This is enemy law.”

Halfeti Municipality Co-Mayor Mehmet Karayılan said: “We know the trustee mentality. For the third time, the will of the people is being persecuted. Like a defeated wrestler, this mentality wanted to face the people again. They will be defeated again. The trustee was appointed not only to the municipality, but to the values of the Kurdish people as a whole.”

DEM Party Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan stated that Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, whom he met on 23 October, also mentioned the Halfeti Municipality during their meeting: “We had a meeting with Mr. Öcalan on 23 October. Historical developments between the Turkish and Kurdish peoples were touched upon and the process from Sultan Sencer a thousand years ago to the establishment of the republic was evaluated in detail. We talked about Halfeti and Halfeti Municipality. We told Mr Öcalan that one of the co-mayors of the municipality was a Turkmen citizen and the other a Kurdish woman. Mr Öcalan then talked about Halfeti, which is inhabited by Kurds and Turkmens. It has a ground where Mr Öcalan's paradigm can be implemented. Mr Öcalan said ‘This is my project’.”

The DEM Party MP continued:

“Mr Öcalan was surprised when he heard that Karayılan was Turkmen. Halfeti is the reality of Turkey. Mr Öcalan's message is clear; ‘I am for a solution if conditions are met’. We insist on democratic politics. What is happening today does not contribute to a solution. The problems are getting deeper. The legal ground is being destroyed. Who is winning? These are wrong policies. Policies that deepen the problem must be abandoned. Is this how you will ensure internal integration? In Halfeti, everyone's right to vote is being taken away. They don't want Kurds and their friends to do politics. There is a mindset that insists on conflict and violence. Against this, we will insist on democratic politics and the democratic nation paradigm.”

The sit-in protest in front of the blockaded municipality building continues.

Van

As the residents of Van gathered on the Art Street in the city center, DEM Party Van MP Gülcan Kaçmaz Sayyiğit stated that the AKP-MHP regime defeated in the elections has resorted to the same method again.

Remarking that the people will resist these attacks. Gülcan Kaçmaz Sayyiğit said, “Just as the Kurdish people have not bowed down throughout history, they will not bow down today. Kurds will continue their struggle against this mentality that tries to draw them out of the grounds of democratic politics. You implemented all kinds of dirty war policies in Kurdistan. You implemented special war policies, but the Kurds gave you the answer you needed. You committed corruption, theft, and you are laying hands on our culture, our language, our history and our will. Kurds know very well how to fight against you. The trustee is now a regime. No one should expect us to remain silent. Just as we defended our will against the usurpation on 31 March, I swear that we will put up the same resistance once again.”

The police attacked the people who started to march after the speech. While many were detained during the attack, people started a sit-in protest on Art Street under police blockade.

Mersin

DEM Party provincial organisation staged a march in the central districts of Akdeniz and Toros with the participation of the executives of DEM Party provincial and district organisations, Mersin MP Perihan Koca and many citizens. During the march, slogans such as ‘Kurdistan will be a grave for fascism’, ‘The trustees will go, the people will stay’ and ‘Shoulder to shoulder against fascism’ were frequently chanted. 

DEM Party Mersin Provincial Co-chair Reşat Aşan made a statement after the march in Akdeniz district and said: “It is a day of resistance, a day of struggle against the putschist understanding, against those who ignore the Kurdish people, against the oppressors who disregard the will of the Kurdish people.”

DEM Party MP Perihan Koca said, “Trustee is theft, usurpation, a coup against the will of the Kurdish people, a coup against the will of women and youth.”

DEM Party Provincial Organisation will make a press statement at 18:00 today.