Yenişehir Municipality Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-mayor, Belgin Diken, told ANF that they are under constant threat from the central government. "They are constantly using the same bullying method and committing crimes against our party and its voters, knowing that they won’t get any results."

Co-mayor Belgin Diken was dismissed and replaced by a trustee and pointed out that with a trustee regime the central government can reach all areas. She added that the will of the people cannot be usurped. “Right now, they may be in charge of those buildings, but they can never be in charge of the will of the people. The people did not accept the trustees. Our people show this at the ballot boxes by claiming their own will. The people did not accept any of the appointed trustees. There were new elections and again, our people showed their strength at the ballot boxes by claiming their will.”

They commit a crime

Diken said that the HDP suffered great damage from the trustees when they won the municipalities for the second time in the elections. Diken said: “Trustees were appointed to our institutions for women and youth to our homes of condolence. They systematically allocated all of our institutions within themselves or to the institutions of the state for 5 years or 10 years and tried to spread the trustee system in every field. At the stage we have arrived at, we are faced with a very difficult situation. They are committing crimes against our party and its voters, knowing that they are constantly trying the same tyrannical method but they are not getting any results."

We are the will of our people

Co-mayor Diken said: “We were faced with a trustee regime that try to impose on society its will by changing our women's units, women's directorates, neighbourhood names and street names. As we arrived, we took the decision to change it again in line with the decisions we made by our city council members. After a period of 6 months, they had a trustee process again. Now the people knew that they would stand upright against the incoming trustees and would always stand behind their will. We were arrested. We got house arrest, we still have court cases going on, but we are always standing behind our people. They can appoint trustees to buildings, but they cannot appoint trustees to the will of the people.”

Emphasizing that trustees are not valued by society for the work they carry out, Diken added: “The topic discussed in our neighbourhood’s work and family visits is what to do if a trustee is appointed again and what the trustee regime does. They carry out works that they do in their own way, creating destruction within the framework of an order they have established. They don't have work for women, young people and the public. People see this too. They suffer under the trustees. When we first came to Yenişehir Municipality, we reported the destruction of the trustee and announced it to the public through the press. We took over with a debt of 178 million TL. The general debts of SSK on municipalities and unions were all gone.”