President Erdoğan continues to seize municipalities he couldn’t win through elections.
A government-appointed trustee has now been assigned to the municipality of Van, one of the largest cities in eastern Turkey.
Abdullah Zeydan, the elected co-mayor of Van, was unlawfully sentenced to prison, and in his place, the government appointed the provincial governor as trustee.
With this move, the number of municipalities taken over by trustees in the past year has risen to 11. Of these, 9 belonged to the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which received significant support in the region, while 2 were taken from the main opposition, the social-democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Under Erdoğan’s rule, Turkey’s judiciary has fallen under government control, handing out politically motivated prison sentences to elected mayors. This allows Erdoğan to seize opposition-led municipalities by appointing trustees, undermining democratic elections.
