Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party won provinces and municipalities across Anatolia’s heavily ethnic-Kurdish southeast in local elections three weeks ago (March 31). Now, as many of its newly elected officials begin their duties, the party is fighting allegations related to failing to read the Turkish national anthem and raise the Turkish flag in the provinces of Mardin and Diyarbakir.
Since 2019, Turkey’s central government in Ankara has made a practice of deposing and replacing democratically elected mayors from pro-Kurdish parties in southeastern Anatolia in what has become known as the ‘trustee’ (kayyum) system. In the lead-up to last month’s local elections, many speculated as to whether President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) would continue the practice in the event of DEM Party victories in the region.
In a controversial episode earlier this month, the DEM Party’s mayor-elect Abdullah Zeydan of the southeastern city of Van was disqualified following his election victory based on allegations of ‘organizational propaganda,’ only to be surprisingly reinstated by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) following massive public outcry from both DEM, other opposition parties, and local residents.
Despite Zeydan’s reinstatement, paranoia that the AKP may return to the kayyum practice has persisted. Between 2019-2024, dozens of AKP officials were appointed to local posts in southeastern provinces and served out the terms of their pro-Kurdish predecessors, who in most cases had been removed due to alleged terrorism connections.
Some fear that the new investigations being launched in Mardin and Diyarbakir may offer the AKP a pretense to remove newly elected DEM officials.
National anthem and flag controversy in Mardin, Diyarbakir
On social media, allegations appeared last week that Mardin’s municipal council had voted not to start their assemblies by playing the Turkish national anthem, despite alleged requests to do so from local AKP officials. Newly elected Mardin mayor Ahmet Türk, a member of the DEM Party, was alleged to have said “We have no such item on our agenda,” regarding the proposal to start the assembly with the national anthem.
In separate allegations also shared on social media, the Turkish flag was allegedly removed from the assembly space of Diyarbakir’s municipal council. Two pictures circulating on social media comparing pre- and post-election assembly meetings showed the flag missing in the latter. Diyarbakir, a large city close to Mardin, is often considered as the cultural capital of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
Interior Minister announces investigation
Last Friday (April 19), Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that a chief civil inspector had been tasked with investigating the cases related to ‘faılure to raise the Turkish flag’ and ‘failure to read the İstiklal March [Turkish national anthem]’ in the Diyarbakir and Mardin districts.
DEM denies allegations
In an announcement later the same day, the DEM Party denied the allegations, saying “We would like it to be known that the misleading information being spread is a fictitious manipulation. The national anthem has been sung, and the flag has been flying where it should be.”
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In a separate statement denying the allegations, DEM Party spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan said: “We recommend public resources not be wasted on these futile efforts. Would you instead consider allocating these same resources to investigate corruption by appointed trustee officials, and the large debts they have left in our municipalities?”
Prior to leaving office earlier this month, municipal AKP appointees in the southeast have been alleged to have left large debts in municipal budgets in an attempt to hinder their DEM Party successors.
Atatürk, Erdoğan insults in Diyarbakir
In a separate case in Diyarbakir where the DEM Party has denied any connection, an individual was arrested over the weekend for allegedly insulting Turkish founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and President Erdoğan during a ceremony in which officials elected March 31 received their election certificates.
In a statement, the DEM Party denied any connection to the arrest but echoed spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan’s call that corruption allegedly committed by their AKP predecessors be investigated:
“Our municipalities will not run away from any investigation. However, we demand that these investigations be expanded to include the robbery, corruption, and plunder that has occurred in our municipalities.”
Written/translated by Leo Kendrick for Medyascope
