On November 4th, we woke up to the news of three municipalities in the Kurdish region, Batman, Mardin and Halfeti being usurped by the government of Turkey through the appointment of imposed trustee administrations. This is not the first time Kurdish municipalities are appropriated and Kurdish people’s democratically elected local administrators are removed from office. Ever since the law was changed through a presidential decree in 2016, under the State of Emergency following the failed coup attempt in Turkey, allowing for the appointment of trustees to local administrations, 160 municipalities have been usurped. 96 trustees were appointed in 2016, then another 59 trustees after the local elections in 2019. Some former HDP co-mayors who were removed from office were arrested and have remained behind bars for years. Among them were women co-mayors who were put on trial for their statements at feminist marches and actions held on November 25 and March 8, organized as part of the struggle for women’s liberation. All of these trustees were against the Kurdish party, HDP (now DEM party). Despite this, the 2024 local elections saw DEM party regain these municipalities in increased numbers. Now these municipalities are under attack. This didn’t begin today. On the 3rd of June, the mayor of Hakkari was forcibly removed, then on the 31st of October a trustee was appointed to Esenyurt, the largest district of Istanbul.
We as feminists from Turkey see this usurpation as a feminist issue and call upon feminists globally to take a stance against this anti-democratic practice. The reason is because we know from first-hand experience what local administrations mean to women and how state-appointed trustees are a blow to women’s lives, livelihoods, access to services, public presence, political representation and claim to equality. Ever since 2016, municipalities in the Kurdish region have been turned into instruments of repression. Governed by trustees for eight years, they became inaccessible palaces behind high iron barriers where the mother tongue of their citizens, Kurdish, was barred. Women were not welcome inside these buildings with the dismantling of the co-mayorship system that ensures equal representation. A flow-on effect of this was for women to be excluded from every level of municipal administration, to the extent that for instance in Batman, the Municipal Department for Women’s Policies was headed by a man – and this was the department that is tasked with responding to cases of violence against women. Just as women were pushed out of decision-making positions, institutions that empower women were also dismantled. Areas where women socialized outside the home, such as communal kitchens and laundromats, were closed down. Some were turned into religious courses, given over to religious foundations, others into marriage offices, others into coffee houses for men. A municipal gymnasium for women was turned into a men’s gym. Municipalities took to distributing brochures promoting marriage and family values. These are deliberate steps, and the message is clear: Public space belongs to men and women belong at home, within the family.
The denial of all kinds of basic infrastructure services under trustee administrations also brought an added burden to women due to the sexist division of labor. A lack of running water resulted in women having to carry buckets of water home. Trustees handed down hefty debts to municipalities, and either sold or donated public properties, vehicles, and immovables to ministries for decades. One such immovable is the office of the Selis Women’s Center in Batman, which was taken from women and then rented out for a shockingly small sum. Loans taken out by trustees in some cases have higher interest than the principal sum, which shows that the main purpose is to cripple these municipalities. At the same time, appointed trustees cut off financial support provided to women in shelters, even though these were far from being amounts that took a toll on municipal budgets.
After this long period of destruction, however, women coming into power as co-mayors after the 2024 election immediately set to work in order to turn municipalities into structures of service and empowerment for women once again. Municipal Councils were populated by women. Even the immediate impact is unimaginable. Once again Municipal Departments for Women’s Policies became active, municipalities started opening women’s solidarity and consultations centers, women’s cooperatives, daycare centers and more. Programs to distribute free menstrual pads, cover HPV vaccinations, provide sign language training to bus drivers, give women below a certain income level access to free public transport with the Jin Card pass were put into effect. These began to turn cities into places where women can exist in public space as equals with needs that deserve attention. Even this possibility itself could not be tolerated.
It is not a coincidence that one of the cities that have been targeted is Batman, where Gülistan Sönük is mayor as a young Kurdish woman who dared to run against a political party (Hüda-Par) that has ties to an Islamist paramilitary organization active in the region since the 1990s. Her male rival had mockingly said, “We will allow women to choose what color of burqa they wear,” but she defeated him by %64 to %15. Now the aim of this trustee appointment is to bring this ideology to power over the wills of Kurdish women.
We as feminists in Turkey will not remain silent, and we ask feminist across the world to raise your voices with us, in solidarity.
What can you do?
- Share and spread this statement in order to inform the public & post content about recent developments in Turkey and the appointment of trustees in order to raise awareness
- Use the hashtag #feministssaynototrustees and #feministlerkayyumahayirdiyor when sharing the statement
- Send us your solidarity messages and videos at [email protected] and @feministgundem
- Put pressure on your governments to criticize this anti-democratic step taken by the government of Turkey
