MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed (Diyarbakır)- After 2019 local elections in Turkey, the elected mayors in Kurdish cities were taken over by government-appointed trustees. The next local elections are expected to be held on March 31, 2024 in Turkey and  Northern Kurdistan. NuJINHA spoke to elected women about the next local elections and the government-appointed trustees. The trustees appointed to the municipalities in the cities of Northern Kurdistan have already started the preparation of voter registration fraud, they said.

Yasemin Üçer, Co-mayor of the Dicle Municipality in Amed, indicated that there are serious social crises in the district of Dicle. “The people receive no service and young people are forced to leave the district due to unemployment, the increase in drug consumption and because the people are forced to spy.”

‘The appointed trustees serve special warfare, not the public’

Yasemin Üçer thinks the appointed trustees carry out no activities for women and the entire society. “Now, the government-appointed mayor in the district serves the policies of the AKP. After the appointment of the trustee to the Dicle Municipality, the appointed mayor has left no space for women and young people in the district. Before the appointment of the trustee, we had a women’s shelter; however, it was closed down by the appointed mayor. The appointed trustee has paved the way for young people to leave the district because no agricultural activities were carried out to offer employment opportunities to young people. The appointed trustee has carried out no project for five years. Instead of following policies for the people, they have spread drug consumption and prostitution in order to move the people away from their values,” she told us.

‘We will serve our people’

Yasemin Üçer also talked about the upcoming local elections. “We are preparing for the next local elections. We will carry out our election campaign with people. Many of our municipalities were dragged into debt with the trustees appointed in 2016. Now, the municipalities have no money. The budgets of the municipalities were not spent to serve the public. At the next elections, we will take our municipalities back. We will carry out activities for both women and young people.”

A trustee was also appointed to Amed’s Yenişehir Municipality in 2019. Nevriye Çur, council member of the Yenişehir Municipality, said that the appointed trustees have spent money for sects instead of the people. “Trustees were appointed to our municipalities at different times after two local elections. We always say that the appointment of trustees are the usurpation of will and a rights violation. During the last five years, the appointed trustees have not served the public. Instead of building parks and gardens, the appointed trustees send the students and teachers of the religious vocational high schools to Umrah by using money from municipalities.”

‘We will take our municipalities back’

Nevriye Çur said that they would take their municipalities back from the appointed trustees in the next local elections. “The appointed mayors do not care about serving the public. The women were first targeted by the appointed trustees. The women will come back stronger. We will never accept the government-appointed trustees.”