The Democratic Local Administrations Board of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) released a statement about the detention of the co-mayors and municipal employees in the Patnos district of Ağrı earlier today.

The statement pointed out that the operation against the HDP-run Patnos Municipality proved once again that “the government, which has usurped the will of the people with its trustee policy since 2016, will not recognize the will of the people.”

The statement said: “Many employees of the Patnos Municipality, including co-mayors Müşerref Geçer and Emrah Kılıç, were unlawfully detained this morning. These detentions are a continuation of the political genocide operations.

Those who talked about their arbitrary usurpation of people’s will during the election campaign have now gone into the effort of maintaining this unlawfulness after the election as well. They thus declare openly that they will continue to commit a crime with policies seeking to usurp the will of the people. These attacks are an indication that the policies which approve the corruption and mismanagement by trustees will continue to be pursued in the new period as well. It represents moving to another stage in hostility against the Kurds and women.”

HDP noted that the co-chairs and municipal employees were detained during house raids without even being summoned to give their statements. “Those who seek to usurp the will of the Kurdish people through perception detentions should know that our people will claim their will to the very end,” it underlined.

The statement concluded: “You will not be able to intimidate this people by means of crackdown, detentions and arrests. We will not back away from standing up for our will based on our principles of co-presidency and equal representation. Our detained co-mayors and municipal employees should be released immediately. We will fight your policy of usurping people’s will to the end.”