In several cities of Northern Kurdistan and Turkey, there were protests for the fourth day in a row against the appointment of trustees to municipalities won by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the local elections of 31 March 2019.

Last Friday, the mayors of five other HDP-run municipalities were arrested and trustees were appointed in their place. The provinces of Siirt and Iğdır were among those affected. 45 of the 65 municipalities in which the HDP emerged as the winner in the March 2019 local elections are now under the rule of the government.

A protest rally was held in Siirt in front of the HDP provincial association. The demo, which was organised by the HDP Women's Council, was attended by deputies Ayşe Sürücü, Dersim Dağ, Ayşe Acar Başaran, Meral Danış Beştaş, Nuran İmir and Remziye Tosun, as well as Songül Korkmaz, the co-mayor of Batman, who had also been deposed, and numerous other women.

The deputy co-chair of the HDP parliamentary group Meral Danış Beştaş highlighted in a speech that the appointment of trustees is illegal as the will of the people is eliminated.

The deposed mayor Songül Korkmaz spoke about her own experiences in Batman and said that the state's action is intended to distance the people from the elected mayors: "However, the people are on our side. If another election was to be held tomorrow, the results would be no different. The government wants to take what it could not achieve at the ballot box. We will continue our work because the people have given us the power to do so."

Further protests took place in Kiziltepe, in several districts of Amed (Diyarbakir), in Cizre, Adana and Hatay.

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