The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları made a statement in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district after the Central Executive Committee (MYK) meeting following the arrest of district mayor Ahmet Özer and the usurpation of his office by a state-appointed trustee.

Tülay Hatimoğulları stated that they know the trustee regime very well and said, “Because this trustee regime has been applied to everyone who stands in favour of democracy, especially Kurdish provinces and Kurdish voters. The trustees first did their internship at HDP municipalities, then they spread the trustee regime to universities, then to the businesses they did not like."

The DEM Party co-chair continued: “The appointment of trustees to municipalities should have been, and still should be, more strongly opposed. We have repeatedly emphasised how the trustees appointed in Kurdish provinces would spread to the west. I wish we had not been right; we wish we had been wrong. But unfortunately, we were right. Today, the trustee regime has spread to the western municipalities of Turkey.

The municipality of Esenyurt, the largest district of Turkey, was won by popular consensus based on an understanding of municipalism that is a model for the whole of Turkey. Esenyurt means Turkey. All the people from different peoples and beliefs living in Turkey have their projections in Esenyurt. The government, which could not tolerate the urban consensus in Esenyurt, tried to strike a blow to the will of the people with a dawn operation. Trustee is a coup regime.

Trustee means usurping the will of the people.  It means taking away the citizen's right to elect and be elected. The trustee regime is antidemocratic and unlawful. The trustee regime means taking away the right to elect and be elected, which is the minimum condition of democracy. What has been done to the mayor Ahmet Özer today has been done to the will of the people of Esenyurt. Ahmet Özer did not just get out of his home and walked to the municipality. He was elected to that office by receiving one of the 2 votes of the people of Esenyurt.

The ballot box is the will of the people. The will of the people was again subjected to an operation yesterday. We will continue to fight against these operations, against those who ignore the will of the people, against the understanding that tramples democracy, rights and law as we did before. In our view, yesterday's operation and the appointed trustee are null and void.

Ahmet Özer is the honour of this society. He is an academic, he is a scientist. At the same time, he was elected by the will of the people, he has continued his political life in a political party by making his own choice, and he is running a municipality. They detained such a person with a false indictment, as they do with every mayor. With a fabricated file. We know and recognise these fabricated files full of lies and falsehoods very well. The will behind this operation is the government in Ankara and the Palace. The Palace appoints trustees to the municipalities that it could not win through elections, as it did yesterday with the mayor, Ahmet Özer, usurping the will of the people and appointing its own officials there.

In this country, if not those elected but those appointed will govern the municipalities, this regime is an authoritarian one. You cannot call this regime democracy, you cannot call it law. Today, Esenyurt Municipality is the biggest municipality in Turkey. This municipality, which is bigger than many provinces, is approached by the government and the trustee mentality with a logic of rent. We know very well that they resorted to the trustees in order to earn rent. We know very well that, on the one hand, they usurp the will of the people, take away the people's right to elect, crush democracy, but on the other hand, they appoint trustees to open the doors of rent for themselves. They are appointing trustees in order to loot the resources of the municipality for their own cronies, just like they looted the treasury of Turkey for their cronies. They are also looting the resources of the municipality for their own cronies; the resources that belong to Esenyurt, that is, to you, our dear people.

We are against the trustee regime and we will continue to be against it. We will do this for rights, justice and democracy. We will also do this for the people's right to service and the right to the city. Today, those who supposedly extend the hand of peace, those who talk about ‘internal peace’ have struck a blow to the internal peace of Esenyurt with the operation they carried out here yesterday. Today, urban reconciliation is internal peace itself. I leave it to the conscience of the peoples of Turkey how those who do not tolerate urban reconciliation can talk about internal peace.

Dear peoples, as all sensitive citizens in Turkey who stand against the trustee regime, as all citizens who do not accept this, it is time for us to be united, it is time to be one, it is time to be together, it is time to demand democracy and internal peace, a real peace, a social peace, so that tomorrow they do not target another municipality, so that tomorrow they do not target another city in Anatolia, in Turkey.

As soon as we received the news, we decided to convene our MYK in Istanbul today and we have just held our MYK meeting. Both here and all over Turkey, we gathered today to discuss our road map together to defend democracy and social peace in Turkey against the trustees. Now we are moving towards the square to meet with our people to say no to the trustees once again.”

After the statement, Tülay Hatimoğulları and the accompanying party members went to Esenyurt Square.