Life Kayyıms At You Fast

Issue #233

This is what happens when Turkish election memes win. This is what happens when Turkish election board suits fail.

In this week’s recap:

• State replaces three DEM Party mayors

• Turkey-US relations forecast

• Turkic states align on alphabet, but not Israel

• Domestic and diplomatic wraps

• Satan detained for Bosphorus Bridge stunt

Also from us this week:

• Güldenay Sonomut on the spat threatening to close elite French schools in Turkey

• Azra Ceylan interviews Young Feminists Federation Rep. Güneş Fadime Akşahin

Protesters in Mardin hold signs reading: “Trustee get out” and “Trustee is a usurpation of will.” © DEM Party

Last week ended with protests following a trustee appointment in İstanbul. This week started with three more kayyıms in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey. The news came on the eighth anniversary of the arrest of former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

Monday morning, the Interior Ministry removed the democratically-elected DEM Party mayors of Mardin (Ahmet Türk), Batman (Gülistan Sönük) and Halfeti (Mehmet Karayılan) from office, and replaced them with state-appointed trustees. All were accused of being a “member of a terror organization”, meaning the PKK. 

In an initial statement Monday, DEM stated the move was “an outright attack against the will of the people.” 

DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan later that day in Batman referred to last month’s handshake moment with MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, saying: “You are a government that has lost its legitimacy, which reaches out with one hand and imposes oppression with the other.” 

Just before we sent this newsletter, the Interior Min. announced legal proceedings had been initiated against Bakırhan for his speech Monday in Mardin.

CHP leader Özgür Özel was also in Mardin Monday, where he met with DEM leaders and Ahmet Türk, a veteran in Kurdish politics who has now been removed from mayoral office three times.

Türk was not only involved with the previous peace process, but also with an attempt to end a family feud in Şanlıurfa just last week. Notably, thr AKP’s Bekir Bozdağ and Vice President Cevdat Yılmaz were present and Bozdağ thanked Türk for his efforts. 

İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu referred to this meeting in denouncing the trustees, writing on X: “Ahmet Türk, who reconciled the families together with the Vice President just a week ago, this week became a terrorist.”

Other opposition politicians, as well as the EU’s Turkey rapporteur criticized the continuation of trustee appointments in Turkey, which Medyascope visualized with insightful graphics here. 

Protests are ongoing in various cities, with many demonstrators being attacked by the police. Amid all of this, questions remain about the intention and timing of such a move within the context of possible negotiations with the PKK.

Türk suggested the trustee appointments might signal a lack of progress on peace talks, saying: “Behind such a message, I guess that they could not get the result they wanted in some other meetings.”

Researcher Reha Ruhavioğlu told DW the trustees could be seen as a way to apply pressure or as an alternative if the desired results are not met.

“Either Öcalan made the decision they wanted him to make and the organization [PKK] does not comply with it. Or Öcalan did not make that decision and they did it to speed up the process. But it is not possible for us to know this exactly,” he said. 

Sinem Adar, an associate at the SWP’s Center for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS), said that starting from Bahçeli’s handshake, this process fits within the larger goal of the AKP-MHP alliance to create a systemic opposition, which includes deepening rifts within CHP and DEM, as well as weakening a possible collaboration between CHP and DEM. 

She pointed to Bahçeli’s speech Tuesday, when he talked about separating the “black and white sheep” within DEM. Bahçeli then added: “We have a hard time distinguishing between the CHP and the DEM Party, and we even confuse the CHP with the PKK.”

Bahçeli also reiterated his call for Öcalan to come to parliament and hinted at constitutional amendments as well as a third term for Pres. Erdoğan, saying: 

"Wouldn't it be a natural and right choice to have our president elected once again if terror is eradicated, and if a heavy blow is dealt to inflation and Turkey secures political and economic stability.” 

Adar highlighted the recent use of the term “strengthening the domestic front” by Erdoğan and others affiliated with the AKP.

“It is not only about DEM, or about CHP, but another component of the issue is the strengthening and undermining tensions within the People’s Alliance,” Adar said, with the latter, for instance, being voices within the party that are unhappy with the securitization of the Kurdish question.

Adding that geopolitical developments in the region might explain the timing and speed of seemingly rushed moves, she concluded: “The developments intend to serve the aspiration of the People’s Alliance to remain in power.”

– Ingrid Woudwijk

How do you say ‘Reiset’ in English? © TCCB

Ğan and Don: Turkey-US relations forecast