After their elected officials were replaced, DEM Party voters head to the polls without expectations
DİYARBAKIR & SİLOPİ — Newroz celebrates the arrival of spring, a new year and new beginnings for many Kurds in Turkey. The celebrations are also deeply linked to the Kurdish rights movement and its political representative, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
Newroz events are organized by DEM, its officials attend celebrations throughout the country and, coming just before elections, this year’s Newroz was also an opportunity to call voters to the ballot box.
Although the mood at Thursday’s Diyarbakır celebrations was enthusiastic, elsewhere in the region Turkey recap noted a sense of hopelessness among many locals ahead of the vote, with several saying they did not expect the election to change the problems facing Kurdish politics.
The state’s years-long practice of replacing elected officials with state-appointed trustees in the region combined with persistent election irregularities and more recent decisions by DEM have undermined many Kurdish voters' confidence not only in this election, but also in politics more generally.
And while DEM politicians are currently trying to rally supporters to the ballot box, excitement for this year’s elections appears low, though many DEM voters said they would cast votes regardless.
Reha Ruhavioğlu, director at the Kurdish Studies Center in Diyarbakır, said the center’s research indicated just one in three Kurdish voters were interested in the election. The rest were divided almost evenly between “not interested” and “moderately interested”.
“There is about 18-19 percent [of people] that say they won’t vote. Up to 10 percent are unsure whether they will vote. This means interest is low, and the turnout will be around 75 percent,” Ruhavioğlu told Turkey recap, adding DEM’s vote share could fall as a result.
Trustee system
One reason many voters cited for their lack of enthusiasm was the appointment of trustees to almost all the municipalities won by DEM’s predecessor, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
Of the 65 HDP officials elected in 2019, just six are still governing today. The rest were either never granted their certificate of election (an official mandate to govern), or were replaced by state-appointed “trustee mayors” after taking office.
The trustee practice has been widely condemned by the Council of Europe, MPs of the European Parliament and human rights organizations for violating the democratic rights of voters and political parties.
“Removing, detaining, and putting on trial local Kurdish politicians as armed militants with no compelling evidence of criminal activity seems to be the Turkish government’s preferred way to wipe out political opposition,” Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2020 report on the issue.
Just north of the Iraqi border in Silopi, the town’s co-mayor Adalet Fidan is one of last remaining HDP mayors from the 2019 elections. She attributes this to the fact she is a member of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
“If they had dismissed someone who’s a member of the Council of Europe, it would have been a bigger news topic. That is what we think,” Fidan told Turkey recap.
Apart from the affiliation, she believed there was no other difference between her and her dismissed colleagues, saying, “It shows how much this is a political decision.”
“Our co-mayor of Nusaybin, Semire Nergiz, was a lawyer and before she became co-mayor, she didn't have a single file against her,” Fidan said to provide an example. “But for some reason, after she was elected, she suddenly had connections with the organization and they appointed a trustee … these are completely unsubstantiated claims.”
The “organization” she referred to was the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Speaking of her own experience, Fidan said she remained in office, but not without difficulty. First, she felt a constant threat that any day could be her last as mayor. She said the uncertainty made it difficult to make long-term plans for Silopi.
Fidan also claimed she inherited a large debt from her trustee predecessor, which further obstructed her capacity as mayor. Additionally, Fidan said she experienced regular bureaucratic obstacles, such as not being able to obtain loans and difficulties approving road work. She said she was also tailed by authorities wherever she went.
More generally, when trustees are appointed, she said, public programs involving women’s issues and Kurdish cultural rights are often the first to be cut.
Her municipality recently opened a Kurdish language, art and cultural center, but its fate is uncertain, explained municipality worker Delil Ürek as he gave Turkey recap a tour of the newly renovated building.
Ürek believed such spaces were in high demand since there are few formal opportunities for youth in Turkey to learn Kurdish, which is often their mother tongue in this region. A previous organization in Silopi that focused on Kurdish music and language was closed by a trustee that governed between 2016 and 2019.
“No expectations”
In contrast to the mayor and municipality workers, voters in Silopi have less confidence their elected officials will stay in office.
“Even if we have expectations, there’s no point,” said Selman Timur as he bought turşu at a small shop in downtown Silopi. “We vote for a mayor, what happens two days later? They appoint a trustee.”
Regardless, he said he still planned to vote for DEM “so everyone will know that the Kurdish people claim their [political] will.”
DEM officials, meanwhile, try to voice a more optimistic stance. Co-mayor Fidan said the party was very determined to prevent another round of trustee appointments after the elections.
Berdan Öztürk, one of the party’s Diyarbakır MPs, also said they would respond through democratic means and street protests if trustees were appointed again.
“We are not going to obey [if] the state and government appoint a trustee again … It's unacceptable,” he told Turkey recap.
He added that such “resistance” should not come solely from DEM supporters, saying the broader Turkish public should work to end undemocratic practices in their own country.
“It's not just a responsibility of Kurdish people. It's the responsibility of people that live in Turkey. If you are going to live in a democratic country, you have to be the voice of and support Kurdish people,” Öztürk said.
Expected continuation of trustees
Whether the trustee system continues after the elections remains an open question. When asked about his expectations, researcher Ruhavioğlu was not optimistic.
“I don’t see any reason why the trustee practices won’t continue. We need to look at the issue from the perspective of Erdoğan,” he said, referring to Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “He is very happy with this policy. This policy benefits him. It weakens Kurdish politics.”
Apart from demoralizing Kurdish voters, the trustee system also benefits the government's network of business partners, Ruhavioğlu said.
In the years since trustees have been appointed to southeastern and eastern provinces, many reports have emerged alleging trustees were involved in corruption, extraordinary spending and financial mismanagement, with some constructing luxury accommodations for personal use.
“It creates new areas of profit for people around the government,” Ruhavioğlu said.
More recently, in November 2023 Bianet reported the Diyarbakır Chamber of Architects filed a criminal complaint against trustees for allowing "profit-oriented unauthorized construction" in places that were designated for other purposes. The Interior Ministry did not grant permission for an investigation into the complaint.
Necmi İletmiş, a tourism guide living in Diyarbakır for 10 years, said he expects a new round of trustee appointments after elections.
“We are not so excited. Not only for Diyarbakır, but for the whole country,” he told Turkey recap.
İletmiş said he was very unhappy with the trustee mayor of Diyarbakır, saying infrastructure work was slow-to-come and services were not sufficiently distributed.
“It’s chaos. Nothing works properly. People were frustrated with the HDP [mayors], but nowadays with trustees, they are thinking those were the good old days,” he said.
“Anyway, I will go and give my vote and I think most of the people in Diyarbakır feel the same,” İletmiş said, adding he doesn’t expect anything to change after the elections.
“I don’t think the people will have any illusions,” he said.
2023 disappointment
Along with the trustee issue, Ruhavioğlu said the 2023 elections also lowered expectations for many Kurdish voters.
DEM’s predecessor party supported the main opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost the first round and made an agreement before the second round vote with Ümit Özdağ, the leader of the far-right nationalist Zafer Party. This created a “confidence crisis” among DEM supporters, Ruhavioğlu said.
“Kurdish voters took a step back from politics. Not only from voting, but they are not interested in politics anymore. And this used to be a very political group,” Ruhavioğlu said.
As with most opposition parties after the 2023 results, DEM has struggled to keep its base motivated and engaged.
One key difference between this election and 2019, is DEM can’t motivate voters by saying they will end the trustee system through the ballot box, as HDP did in 2019 only to see the status quo continue.
The way Ruhavioğlu sees it, Erdoğan has found a winning formula to suppress the Kurdish movement politically and militarily.
“So there is pressure from the judiciary, the government institutions and the police on Kurdish politics in the country,” Ruhavioğlu said. “Rojava [Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria] and Qandil [a PKK base in northern Iraq] are under military pressure with operations. I see that Erdoğan is pleased with this situation.”
Election irregularities
When speaking of their lack of confidence in the democratic process, some voters – especially in Silopi – cited the persistence of voting irregularities in the region.
Silopi mayor Adalet Fidan believed the HDP lost some districts in the Şırnak province (where Silopi is located) due to corruption and ballot box stuffing or tampering. In 2019, the pro-Kurdish party lost many of the Şırnak districts they had won in 2014.
“Since these are small places, the number of voters is also low. And [the government] moves a lot of voters to these districts,” Fidan said, referring to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Earlier in March, DEM officials claimed 54,000 new voters had been registered in Kurdish-majority cities, and most of them were security personnel.
“There are many games going on in Şırnak districts. Money, bribes, threats to dismiss civil servants,” Fidan said.
Similar claims were detailed by Abdullah Güngen, the Şırnak co-chair for DEM, in an interview with Arti Gerçek.
Election integrity remains at risk in many Kurdish-majority provinces, which are also less often monitored by international election observers.
Talks with AKP
At Newroz in Diyarbakır, veteran Kurdish politician Leyla Zana made her first public speech in about seven years. She said Kurds should focus on their own party instead of making coalitions with others.
“They say, 'We have ruled the Kurds for 100 years, the Kurds are satisfied with us. That's why they vote for us.' The AKP, the CHP, the MHP... From now on, we say 'no'. From now on, we will use our will only for ourselves.”
Towards the end of the speech, she asked the public if they were ready for another peace process. In the days since then, Zana has also joined DEM on the campaign trail to rally voters behind the party, including voters in İstanbul.
During his speech at the Diyarbakır Newroz, DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan also made signals to the presidential palace, saying: “Instead of war, let’s take steps towards a solution”.
The overtures for a peace process came after rumors emerged in the run-up to the elections suggesting DEM was in talks with the AKP. The speculation was refuted by DEM officials and politicians.
However, DEM’s Mardin mayoral candidate and heavyweight politician Ahmet Türk said last week that party members had been meeting with individual members of the AKP, but that no guarantees were given regarding the trustee system.
From the perspective of Ruhavioğlu, the researcher, talks with Erdoğan were reasonable considering he holds the power to improve conditions for Kurdish voters, Kurdish parties and jailed Kurdish officials.
“Leyla Zana, [jailed former HDP co-chair] Selahattin Demirtaş, [his wife] Başak Demirtaş, all of them made signals to Erdoğan,” Ruhavioğlu said, adding their message was essentially: “We put our hands on the [negotiating] table to solve this issue with you.”
“But the one who will decide how this process moves forward is Erdoğan, not the Kurds,” he added, saying negotiations with the Kurdish movement do not appear to be on the government’s current agenda.
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