Reaction from 53 bar associations to trustee appointments: A call to the Ministry of Interior

Following the Esenyurt Municipality, trustees have been appointed by the government to the Mardin, Batman, and Halfeti municipalities as well. Citizens have shown a strong reaction to this trustee decision.

53 bar associations, including those of Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, issued a joint written statement expressing their reaction to the trustee decision.

A CALL TO THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

The statement, which included the call, "The Ministry of Interior must immediately abandon the decision it has made and reinstate the mayors to their duties," noted the following:

"The trustee practice initiated after the March 31, 2024 Local Administration Elections has turned into an unconstitutional, disproportionate intervention that violates the right to vote and be elected and the requirements of a democratic society, reaching an increasingly heavy level with the removal of the Mardin, Batman, and Halfeti Mayors today, following the Esenyurt Mayor last week.

The final sentence of the fourth paragraph of Article 127 of the Constitution, which is presented as the basis for the aforementioned trustee practice, regulates temporary suspension from duty by the decision of the Minister of Interior 'due to a crime related to the duty.' Indeed, a parallel regulation is also included in Article 47 of the Municipality Law No. 5393.

"The regulation stating that a mayor can be appointed by the Ministry of Interior has no constitutional basis"

However, the regulation in the second paragraph of Article 45, which was first added to the Municipality Law with Decree-Law No. 674 during the state of emergency declared after the coup attempt, and subsequently enacted into law with Law No. 6758, stating that a mayor can be appointed by the Ministry of Interior in cases of '...removal from office due to crimes of terrorism or aiding and abetting terrorist organizations,' has no constitutional basis.

The Constitutional Court states that moving beyond the situations where the guardianship authority of the central administration is limited by the fifth paragraph of Article 127 means denying the principles of local government and decentralization, and that appointments made by the politically identified bodies of the central administration in place of those removed from office are unconstitutional. Since the authority to appoint has been given to the politically identified bodies of the central administration, and since there is always the possibility of initiating investigations and prosecutions solely to achieve this goal and removing them from office for these reasons, the 'temporary' appointment turns into a 'permanent' appointment, constituting an unlawful intervention.

Indeed, although the Law only regulates the condition of having the qualifications to be elected as mayor for the person to be appointed in place of the removed mayor, the appointment of Governors and District Governors instead of any Municipal Council member in the recent trustee appointments is a clear indication that the discretionary power is being used without regard for the will of the voters.

The Ministry of Interior must immediately abandon the decision it has made and reinstate the mayors to their duties; the regulation added to the Municipality Law in 2016 must be amended, and not a single practice that would mean an intervention in the right to vote and be elected should be carried out."

News Source: 12punto