As the 32nd session of the Local and Regional Administrations Congress continues in the Council of Europe (CoE), members of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) held a series of meetings with committees from several member states.

The delegation, including DBP Co-chair Kamuran Yüksek, HDP İzmir MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü and HDP Representative Fayik Yağızay, met with several member states’ delegations, including Germany, Switzerland, Cyprus, Greece and France.

All German elected officials were present in the first meeting with the Germany delegation during the Local and Regional Administrations Congress sessions. A joint meeting was held with the delegations from Greece and Cyprus, while separate meetings were held with delegations from France and Switzerland.

LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS AND DEMOCRACY RENDERED DYSFUNCTIONAL

The agenda in the meetings included the trustee appointments to DBP municipalities and the arrests of co-mayors and city council members and the HDP delegation stressed that the local administrations have been rendered dysfunctional in every sense and stated that these practices against the municipalities deal great blows to local democracy.

DBP and HDP members pointed out that the State of Emergency declared in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt no longer has anything to do with the actual attempt, and stressed that it is currently being used to eliminate the opposition and the democratic, leftist and intellectual circles. The HDP delegation stated in the meetings that some 10 thousand party members along with MPs and co-mayors are imprisoned.

CONGRESS MEMBER NURHAYAT ALTUN’S SITUATION WILL ALWAYS BE ON THE AGENDA

Fayik Yağızay spoke on their meetings with the delegations and added that Nurhayat Altun was also mentioned in the meetings. Nurhayat Altun is the co-mayor of the Dersim Municipality and a member of the Turkey delegation in the Local and Regional Administrations Congress, and she has been imprisoned for 5 months. Yağızay added that they talked about the arbitrary obstruction faced by Amed City Council Member Serra Bucak, who was supposed to attend the Congress sessions but was turned away at the airport.

Yağızay pointed out that all delegations had positive stances towards them, and added that the Local and Regional Administrations Congress Bureau decided to keep Nurhayat Altun’s situation on the agenda in all sessions “until the rule of law is reinstated”.

Local and regional administrations from Council of Europe (CoE) member states are represented in the Congress,which will hold a vote on a report prepared on the pressures faced by DBP municipalities in today’s sessions.