Women clean streets in cities run by gov’t-appointed mayors
Women are cleaning their own streets in Van province and its districts since trustee mayors appointed by the AKP-MHP government do not provide municipal services.
Following the dismissal of the HDP mayors in Van province and its districts by the AKP-MHP government, appointed trustees have stopped providing municipal services. Streets and avenues in the city centre and neighbourhoods have become ruins, and municipal employees do not collect garbage. In the district of Erciş, the streets have turned into a sea of mud since the municipalities have not been collecting garbage for days or even months.
In the Muradiye district where the HDP mayor was replaced by a government-appointed trustee, local women have started to clean streets by themselves. Women living in the same streets come together in the early morning once a week to collect garbage.
WE CLEAN STREETS ON OUR OWN
“Previously, our garbage was collected almost every day during the HDP municipality period. After the HDP mayor was dismissed, the government-appointed trustee stopped collecting garbage. We started to clean our own street by getting together with our neighbours living in the same street. We, women, will continue to clean our streets jointly from now on,” Halime Yılmaz, who lives in Muradiye district, said.
TRUSTEE MAYOR OFFERS NO CLEANING SERVICE
“So far, we have not seen any service from the trustees. There is no cleaning service, which is the main duty of the municipality. As women, we have started to do this service on our own. If we leave it to the trustee municipality, our street will become a mountain of garbage,” Songül Karataş, who lives in the same district, said.
SEA OF MUD IN STREETS
In Erciş district, which is run by a trustee mayor, water holes and deep pits can be seen in the streets and avenues, and local people are not able to walk due to the mud. Especially in Yeşilova, Çelebibağ, Yukarı and Aşağı Işıklı Örene and Solağa neighbourhoods, water holes and pits are reported in almost all of the streets. The streets turn into a sea of mud when it rains. The residents of these neighbourhoods reacted to the Erciş trustee mayor and said that the trustee only provides services to the ruling AKP and its supporters.
