Legislative proposal from DEM Party: Amend the law allowing for the appointment of trustees

The wave of trustee appointments that began following the arrest of Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer spread this morning to the Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, Batman Municipality, and Şanlıurfa Halfeti Municipality with an announcement from the Ministry of Interior. As reactions to the trustee appointments grow like an avalanche, the DEM Party has submitted a legislative proposal to the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) to amend the legal provisions enacted during the State of Emergency (OHAL) period that allow for the removal of mayors from office and the appointment of trustees in their place. 

The legislative proposal regarding the amendment of the Municipal Law No. 5393 was submitted with the signatures of DEM Party Group Deputy Chairs Gülistan Koçyiğit and Sezai Temelli. 

The general justification for the legislative proposal included the following statements: 

"While the place and importance of local governments in the democracy debate are constantly increasing, and the relevant article in the current Constitution contains anti-democratic features, what needs to be done is to take democratic steps regarding local governments. However, the July 15, 2016, coup attempt was turned into an opportunity by the government, and a regulation facilitating the removal of mayors by the central administration was introduced with the State of Emergency Decree-Law (KHK) No. 674.

Before the regulations introduced by the State of Emergency Decree-Law and subsequently enacted into law, if an investigation or prosecution had been opened against a mayor, a decision to suspend them from duty could be taken at the discretion of the Ministry of Interior until a final verdict was reached. During this temporary 'precautionary' process, the municipal council would convene and elect a deputy mayor from among its own members. Furthermore, the alleged crime was required to be related to their duties. On August 19, 2016, within the scope of the Omnibus Law No. 411, a 'legislative proposal foreseeing the appointment of trustees to municipalities' was discussed in the TBMM, but the regulation in question was removed from the omnibus law due to the effective opposition of the HDP Group. Realizing that it could not achieve its desired result under the roof of the TBMM, the AKP added an amendment to Article 45 of the Municipal Law No. 5393 with the omnibus Decree-Law No. 674 on September 4, 2016.

With the regulation in the aforementioned omnibus Decree-Law, the way was paved for the appointment of trustees to replace elected municipal co-mayors, regardless of whether there was a finalized court decision, by 'deeming the opening of a lawsuit or investigation sufficient.' It was ensured that individuals determined by the Minister of Interior in metropolitan and provincial municipalities, and by the governor in other municipalities, could be appointed. With the omnibus Decree-Law No. 674, co-mayors elected by the will of the people were removed from their duties and municipalities were usurped; municipal councils, executive committees, and commissions, also elected by the will of the people, were left under the control of appointed civil servants.

Another problematic aspect of the provision brought by Decree-Law No. 674 is that when a mayor is suspended from duty due to 'terrorism,' the municipal council becomes almost automatically dysfunctional. With Decree-Law No. 674, municipal councils were rendered unable to convene without the call of the newly appointed person. This situation constitutes an obstacle to the functionality of the council. When the council cannot function, none of the organs that came to office through elections can perform their duties. This has effectively tied municipalities to the central administration. 

Furthermore, the regulation made the suspension from duty permanent. Consequently, it eliminated the possibilities for re-evaluation at certain periods and reinstatement if necessary in cases of temporary suspension. For this reason, a legally unsupervisable area of authority was granted to the Ministry until the judicial process is concluded. Municipalities, which are stated in Articles 123 and 127 of the Constitution to have public legal personality and how their audits are to be conducted, have thus been transformed into provincial organizations of the central administration. The most fundamental criterion of international agreements that Turkey has also signed, especially the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which is the 'locally elected decision-making body,' has been destroyed.

Based on the aforementioned Decree-Law, municipalities elected from the DBP began to be seized as of September 11, 2016. Trustee appointments took place in a total of 95 DBP municipalities, including 3 metropolitan, 7 provincial, 63 district, and 22 town municipalities, and appointed civil servants of the state were brought to the municipalities. 93 municipal co-mayors, who were the elected will of the people, were also arrested on extra-legal grounds. After the March 31, 2019 local elections, certificates of election were not given to 6 HDP municipal co-mayors, 45 municipal council members, and 3 provincial general assembly members; in the same year, trustees were appointed to 48 HDP municipalities, and mayors and council members were arrested. 

After the March 31, 2024 local elections, our Hakkari Municipal Co-mayor Mehmet Sıddık Akış was removed from office and a trustee was appointed in his place. Without any official notification to our party and municipal officials, the Ministry of Interior announced via a social media post that our co-mayor had been temporarily removed from office and the Hakkâri Governor had been appointed as a trustee in his place. As a result of a trial that has been ongoing for 10 years, has seen 60 hearings, and has been conducted extra-legally from the first step of the investigation to the final hearing, a decision was made in haste after our co-mayor was elected and a trustee was appointed in his place, and a sentence was handed down. The effort to ignore the popular will that emerged in the March 31 elections also manifested in Istanbul's Esenyurt on October 30, 2024, and a trustee was appointed to one of Turkey's largest districts, which was exhibiting a common local government practice through a city consensus. Elected Mayor Ahmet Özer was arrested without being based on anything concrete, under the pretext of 'being a member of an organization' for 694 people who entered his phone signal within the scope of a 10-year retrospective investigation. Carrying out an arrest disproportionately without respecting the right to a fair trial and the right to the presumption of innocence is the instrumentalization of law for political motives with the aim of implementing the trustee practice.

Following Esenyurt, on the morning of November 4, with an announcement by the Ministry of Interior, trustees were appointed to our Mardin Metropolitan, Batman provincial, and Urfa Halfeti district municipalities. In the statement made, non-finalized sentences, ongoing lawsuits, and investigations opened against our three municipal co-mayors were cited as reasons. The mind that has made the usurpation of will a habit has, for the third time, appointed trustees to replace Mardin Metropolitan Municipal Co-mayor Ahmet Türk, elected with 57.4 percent of the vote; Batman Municipal Co-mayor Gülistan Sönük, elected with 64.52 percent of the vote; and Halfeti Municipal Co-mayor Mehmet Karayılan, elected with 39.45 percent of the vote. The anti-democratic threat directed at political will and democratic functioning has once again come to the agenda. Since 2016, when the coup was seen as a blessing and trustee appointments began, a total of 149 trustees have been appointed to date in provinces, districts, and towns where Kurds live densely. In 15 municipalities where Kurds do not live densely, where other parties won, and where the mayor was removed from office, an election was held by the municipal council for the deputy mayor position, and a deputy mayor was elected.

After the trustee appointment, irrational black propaganda began to be made against our party by the government partnership, such as 'those with files were knowingly made candidates, you shouldn't have nominated those with files.' First of all, we would like to state that the investigation/prosecution files initiated against our municipal co-mayors were opened by members of the judiciary whom the government has made dependent on itself and whose names are mentioned with bribery and gang/mafia leaders. Again, the trial processes of many of our co-mayors are based on setups like secret witnesses and are reflections of enemy law. The legal status of the municipal co-mayors who were suspended from duty and replaced by trustees, and the accusations leveled against all of the co-mayors, are outside of municipal duties. That is, they do not include municipal work such as providing services to citizens, protecting their rights, or activating their participation. Rather, there are evaluations made within the scope of freedom of expression and thought and with party identity. 

The reasons for the arrest of the co-mayors are based on secret or open witness statements that are constructed on probabilities and not accepted by the Court of Cassation, and while many of the allegations have been refuted, legal setups have also been revealed. Many of our municipal co-mayors did not have an investigation against them before they were elected, and after they were elected, investigations were opened against them because they used rights guaranteed by the Constitution, such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, which do not constitute a crime. Our former Ergani Municipal Co-mayor Ahmet Kaya, who was replaced by a trustee, is an important example of how these files are constructed to be used as a justification for appointing a trustee. Although Ahmet Kaya was acquitted, he was not reinstated to his duty, and even though the acquittal decision was finalized, a new investigation was immediately opened against him just so he would not be reinstated. All of this shows that the trustee policy and the regulation used as a justification for the trustee eliminate the Kurdish people's right to vote and be elected and their opportunities to engage in politics. Since 2016, the trustee practice has rendered election results null and void in provinces where Kurds live densely, and thus has deprived the Kurdish people of their citizenship rights.

The only harm of trustee policies to the Kurdish people has not been the violation of the right to vote and be elected and the ignoring of the popular will; corruption, bribery, plunder, and irregularity have been the basic management understanding of trustees in municipalities. Following the trustee appointments, many irregularities and illegalities occurred in local governments, and although this situation was reflected to the public many times, no political responsibility was taken, and audit duties were not fulfilled. The reckless use of public resources for personal needs and/or rent, the disregard for transparency and fair competition in tender processes, and the barrenness of municipal services in terms of quality and quantity have emerged as the most prominent features of this period. Municipalities have been removed from being public administrations that provide services to the public within their regions, and the budget formed by the taxes of the people has been melted away with irregular expenditures by being transferred to pro-government institutions in a way far from transparency.

The negative reflections of the trustee practice on local governments, the fact that it allows municipalities that cannot be obtained through elections to be obtained through tutelage, and the destruction created by trustees in the localities where they are appointed have made it necessary to make a regulation for the removal of this practice from the legislation. Not only the legal articles that allow for the appointment of trustees, but also the articles that allow for the suspension of municipal co-mayors from duty must be democratized in accordance with universal rules such as the basic principles of democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental human rights and freedoms."