The co-mayor of the Kağızman district of Kars, Mehmet Alkan, was sentenced to prison on terrorism charges. A court in Kars on Thursday imposed a six-year and three-month prison sentence on the DEM politician, claiming that he was a member of an armed organization. The verdict is not yet final.

While Alkan did not attend the trial due to a storm, the court rejected a request from his lawyers to postpone the hearing. During the proceedings, Alkan's lawyers repeatedly criticized the evidence presented by the prosecution as being manipulated by the police. They claimed that there was no basis for proceedings against the politician.

Mehmet Alkan also criticized the decision. He accused the judiciary of having reached a “pre-determined” verdict in order to pave the way for his removal from office. “If I were not the co-mayor of this district, there would have been an acquittal. I was convicted only because a trustee is meant to take over the Kağızman municipality. This would be a usurpation of the will of the people, which the people of Kağızman will not accept,” said the DEM politician.

Since the verdict against the co-mayor was announced, an increased police presence has been observed in the area around the municipality of Kağızman, which now faces the risk of being usurped by a government-appointed trustee.

Early on Friday, entry and exit to the district was banned, and Kars Governorate announced a 10-day ban on demonstrations and events in the city.

Checkpoints were set up on all roads leading to Kağızman district and citizens on their way to the district are sent back.

DEM Party Kars Provincial Co-Chair and many DEM Party members have also been prevented from entering the district.

Co-Mayors of Kağızman Municipality expressed their reaction by hanging a banner on the municipality building that read, “We came with elections, we won't leave with trustees”.

Alkan won the election for mayor of the Kağızman district in March with 32.68 percent of the vote. The second-place candidate from the ultra-nationalist MHP, which had previously ruled in the region, only received around 25 percent. Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, the deputy chairperson of the DEM Party group in the Turkish parliament, described the sentence against Alkan as “a clear indication of the politicization of the judiciary” and the instrumentalization of the laws: “Mehmet Alkan was convicted in defiance of the fundamental principles of the law.”

Since the local elections on 31 March 2024, the Turkish government has usurped eleven municipalities, and several of the dismissed mayors are in prison. Nine of the affected municipalities were governed by the DEM Party and two others by the Republican opposition party CHP.