While the world and the people of Turkey are giving a life-or-death fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the Turkish government is busy trying to eliminate any opposition.

A trend since the last provincial elections continue with full force. If or when a Kurdish town elects a Kurdish candidate and runs a successful provincial government, the central AKP party’s central Islamic government appoints an unelected loyal bureaucrat to take over the municipality and run it centrally.

Using the fear and the chaos brought on by the inaptitude and openly careless and the initial hands-off stance of the Turkish government against the pandemic, the government ratcheted up the take-overs of democratically elected governments.

By appointing a “steward” to Güroymak, a town that had elected an HDP candidate, a leftist, progressive, pro-Kurdish opposition party, the central government’s take over has reached 38 local governments so far.

The usual “stewardship” procedure for the AKP is to take over the local government and start bankrupting it by going into exuberant buying sprees from the pro-government merchants, things that not even necessary or needed. Many municipalities saw remodeling of the office buildings with marbles and art pieces, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of lunches and deserts as well as exclusive plush bathrooms and showers installed all from government supporting businesses after the “stewards” were appointed.

Güroymak makes 38th out of 65 HDP municipalities taken over by the AKP party completely disregarding the democratic elections.

In response, HDP today asked its supporters to show their opposition to these anti-democratic assaults against its elected officials. HDP is calling people to go out to their balconies every night at 8:00PM and to “make some noise.”

In addition to Güroymak, other municipalities like Silvan, Ergani, Lice, Eğil and Batman have also been under attack as the police have surrounded the official buildings and are blocking any entries. Many of these towns’ mayors have been first taken into custody then arrested. No one knows the charges brought against the mayors since it is not stated by either the prosecutors, the judges or other officials.

Most of these mayors have proven themselves to protect their people from the ongoing pandemic and have implemented a transparent administration which publishes all income and expenditures of the administration. It is easy to understand why the corrupt AKP is waging a relentless fight against these provincial offices.

Sendika.org News (M.B.)