Istanbul’s Imamoglu urges Turkey to reinstate ousted Mardin mayor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Saturday visited veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk in Mardin and called on the Turkish government to reverse its controversial decision to remove Turk from his post as mayor.

“Today in Mardin, we visited and were hosted by Mr Ahmet Turk, a council member of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey… The intervention against the will of Mardin, one of Turkey's oldest and most beautiful cities, must be reversed as soon as possible,” Imamoglu said on X, after his visit with the ousted mayor.

Earlier this month, the Turkish interior ministry removed three Kurdish mayors - Ahmet Turk of Mardin, Gulistan Sonuk of Batman, and Mehmet Karayilan of the Halfeti district in Sanliurfa province - and replaced them with government-appointed trustees. 

All three mayors are from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). 

Imamoglu, who is also the head of Turkey’s Municipalities Union, said his visit to Mardin “includes millennia-old lessons” of unity, democracy, freedom, and justice.

“Being an administrator in Turkey is challenging. Being an administrator in Istanbul comes with an even greater responsibility,” he told Rudaw’s Mashallah Dakak.

Turk and Imamoglu held a joint press conference and the influential Istanbul mayor said he has discussed the controversial government's decision with the leaders of ten political parties.

“We expressed that this practice is unlawful, unjust, and implemented step-by-step in a manner contrary to the law. Ignoring the authority of the assembly is yet another violation of the law,” he said.

Imamoglu has not met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also the leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“I believe that party [AKP] is hesitant on this matter. We also see that some individuals within the ruling party feel deeply embarrassed by this situation,” he said.

Speaking to Rudaw, Turk expressed his thanks for Imamoglu reaching out. “We are grateful to whoever commits to democracy, dialogue, and solidarity,” he said.

The decision to sack the three mayors sparked fury in Turkey. Opposition leaders protested the decision in Mardin, including Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), of which Imamoglu is a member.

Since the decision, bans on gatherings and demonstrations have been imposed across the predominantly Kurdish provinces of Turkey, but this did not stop DEM Party supporters from protesting.

Turk, 82, who won the local elections in March by a landslide, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May for alleged involvement in deadly October 2014 protests. The case is better known as the Kobane trials.

Both Sonuk and Karayilan have been handed prison sentences for alleged “membership in a terrorist organization,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Turkish government has recently turned up the heat on the DEM Party and its elected mayors. In June, a court sentenced the party’s mayor in Hakkari (Colemerg), Mehmet Siddik Akis, to 19.5 years in prison for alleged affiliation with the PKK. Akis was removed from his position days before the court ruling and was replaced by a state-appointed trustee.

The removal of Kurdish mayors and their replacement with trustees is not new. Dozens of Kurdish mayors affiliated with other pro-Kurdish parties have been dismissed and replaced with trustees following terror-related accusations since 2016. Many of them have been sentenced to jail. The DEM Party denies any links to the PKK and maintains it is merely pro-Kurdish.

Kurdish mayor Ahmet Ozer of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district was arrested in late October because of alleged PKK links and was quickly replaced with a trustee. 

Thousands of Kurdish politicians and supporters of pro-Kurdish parties, mainly DEM Party’s predecessor the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), have been jailed in the past decade for PKK-linked charges. A large number of them remain behind bars. 

DEM Party scored several significant victories in the March elections. It took Diyarbakir, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, Hakkari, Van, and Igdir provinces, which its sister party, the HDP, won in 2019 only to have their mayors removed because of alleged links with Kurdish rebels and replaced by state-appointed administrators.

 

Rekar Aziz contributed to this report

Updated at 11:15 pm