“Civilian coup” of mayors by ruling party says HDP

The replacement of three Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayors with government-appointed administrators has been labeled as nothing more than “a civilian coup” by the party’s co-chair Sezai Temelli, the Gazete Duvar news portal reported on Monday.

Mayors of three key provinces in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast were dismissed from their offices early on Monday over claims that they have provided support for a terror organization through their posts.

Diyarbakir Mayor Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli, Mardin Mayor Ahmet Turk and Van Mayor Bedia Ozgokce Ertan, all of whom are members of the pro-Kurdish HDP, were replaced by state-appointed governors temporarily taking over the posts, the Interior Ministry announced.

Speaking to the press following a meeting with HDP’s Central Executive Board (MYK) later on Monday, Temelli emphasized that August 19 went down in Turkish history as “a civilian coup.”

“We woke up to a rainy day again today. Those in power, the AKP [AK Party] -[Nationalist Movement Party] MHP bloc, the Erdogan regime added a new page of shame to the Turkish history,” he said.

Comparing the dismissal of mayors to Turkey’s third coup d’état in 1980, Temelli stated: “The civilian coup of August 19 is a continuation of the coup mechanics of September 12. The state has lost its law, the state has moved away from being a Constitutional state of law.”

The HDP co-chair underlined that the dismissal of mayors is “an attack against not only HDP but also the will of all the people in Turkey who have consented to democracy.”

Temelli held forth that although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP “escapes” from democracy, they are, as the HDP, going after the government with their struggle for democracy.

Making a call to all of Turkey, especially union representatives and democracy supporters, the co-chair said: “It is now the time to take the initiative on the side of democratic politics, the time to join the struggle for democracy. We will never abandon this basis [of democracy].”

He further stated: “We will not wait for democracy [to be restored] by someone or somewhere. We will stand side by side and we will all together ensure that democracy will win, peace will win.”

Holding a joint press conference in the HDP’s provincial headquarters in Diyarbakır, a number of Kurdish movements and political parties argued that the Turkish state’s latest crackdown on HDP mayors in not only a problem for Kurdish people or political parties but of all the people of Turkey.

Representatives from the Kurdistan Communist Party (KKP), the Revolutionary Democratic Kurdish Association (DDKD), the Congress for a Democratic Society (DTK), the Turkey Kurdistan Democratic Party (TKDP), the Human and Freedom Party (PIA) and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (AZADI) were among those who attended the press conference.

“To remain silent in the face of this attitude is to approve it,” they said in the statement read by KKP Chairperson Sinan Ciftyurek on Monday.

Expressing that they regard the appointment of government trustees to replace elected mayors as “usurpation of people’s will” and “a heavy blow“ to Turkey’s law and democracy, they added: “The AKP has shown that it gave up hope in the democracy of this country.”

They ended the statement by calling on the European Commission, the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the United Nations (UN) to take a firm stand against the Turkish state’s “anti-democratic” decision to appoint governors.

Releasing a separate written statement about the issue, the executive board of HDP said that the mayors were dismissed “on an order based on lies and illegal justifications”.

“This is a new and clear political coup. It is a clear and hostile stance against the political will of the Kurdish people,” they added.

Emphasizing that the three ousted mayors had been elected with between 53 and 63 percent of the vote in their cities in the March local government elections, they called for support from other political parties.

“We hereby issue our call for solidarity to all forces of democracy, to all our citizens who carry a conscience, to all oppositions parties in or outside Parliament, to all civilian society organizations, to unions and professional associations and to all democratic associations,” they said.

On the same day, police officers detained seven protesters in a group composed of HDP members and including some lawmakers, as they demonstrated against the removal of the three Kurdish mayors in Istanbul’s Taksim Square around 3.30 pm.

During the campaign speeches for March 31 local elections, Erdogan warned HDP candidates that the state would crack down on the elected officials in the event that they are found to have links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

A militant insurgency that has waged war against the Turkish state since the 1980s, the PKK is deemed a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, as well as the United States and the European Union.

Ankara removes pro-Kurdish mayors of three municipalities on terror charges

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from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/08/20/civilian-coup-of-mayors-by-ruling-party-says-hdp/