Trustee Issues

Issue #214

We’re not gonna July to you: it’s unseasonably hot, which means it’s Adana’s time to shine. What other city has music videos about summer heat?

And what other city canals are policed by kids who beat up youngsters that don’t know how to swim? One told a newscast: “Let them cry instead of letting mothers cry.”

In this week’s recap:

• Replaced Hakkari mayor gets jail time

• Fidan goes to China

• Ankara condemns Israel, threatens Kurds in Syria

• Top court mandate questioned again

• Building collapse, small quake shakes İstanbul

• Meme war distracts from volleyball victory

Also from Turkey recap:

• Yeşim Karaağar and Gonca Tokyol on how the Hakkari events began

Security forces at the Hakkari Courthouse amid protests Wednesday. Source: Mezopotamya Ajansi

On Monday morning, Mehmet Sıddık Akış, the co-mayor of Hakkari, was detained by the police and subsequently removed from office by the Interior Ministry.

While Hakkari Gov. Ali Çelik was appointed as a “temporary” replacement, two days later Akış was sentenced to 19.5 years in jail for a case dating back to 2014.

DEM officials and supporters told Turkey recap that removing the elected mayor in Hakkari and replacing him with a state-appointed official could mark the beginning of a new kayyım era, or trustee era.

According to Vahap Coşkun, a member of the Diyarbakır Political and Social Research Institute (DİSA) and an academic at Dicle University's Faculty of Law, Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's comments on the issue also reflect the possibility of more trustee appointments to come.

"What have we told them before March 31?" Erdoğan asked Wednesday. "If your candidates aren't involved in or join any illegal acts, we have nothing to say for them. But if they've done illegal things, we need to follow the law. Hakkari is the first step of that. Justice has done whatever was necessary and will continue to do that."

From Coşkun’s perspective, even though President Erdoğan wants a "normalization period" in politics, his nationalist allies in the MHP aren’t on board with it.

"The AK Party and MHP do not have a monolith stance regarding normalization," Coşkun told Turkey recap "The AK Party and Erdoğan say that Turkey needs a normalization and politics should soften. But on the other hand, MHP and [Devlet] Bahçeli do not believe that there is anything abnormal," or worth changing.

Defining the recent convictions of Kurdish politicians in the Kobani case and the removal of the Hakkari mayor as "moves to undermine the normalization rhetoric," Coşkun also believes the AKP is misreading the outcomes of the last local elections and focusing only on resolving the economic problems.

In contrast, Coşkun said he found the CHP approach to be more appropriate. The main opposition party has criticized the removal of the DEM mayor and sent a committee to Hakkari.

Referencing the recent Constitutional Court decisions (more below) and the Hakkari events, CHP head Özgür Özel said Tuesday that such developments could push people to demand early elections.

For his part, İstanbul's CHP mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who won the Union of Municipalities of Turkey elections Wednesday, spared two chairs for DEM mayors in his 14-member council, and he said the trustee practice damages people's trust in democracy.

"People want a normalization in real terms, and CHP acts upon it," Coşkun said. "They give a voice to people who struggle under the current economic situation and also take steps to normalize politics.”

“When we look at the report cards since the March 31 elections,” he continued. “It is fair to say that CHP is doing a better job than AKP in evaluating the outcome and developing policies according to it.”

– Gonca Tokyol