David Eray and Bryony Rudkin, co-rapporteurs of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CoE), have expressed concern over the state of local democracy in Turkey following the removal of a Kurdish mayor from office in the eastern province of Van, Turkish Minute reported on Tuesday.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry removed Van Municipality mayor Abdullah Zeydan from office on February 15, appointing a trustee in his place. Authorities cited alleged links to terrorist organizations as the reason for their dismissal.
The co-rapporteurs said the dismissal and replacement of Zeydan, also a member of the Turkish delegation to the congress, was a matter of “grave concern” that cannot be ignored.
They consider the recent move against the ousted co-mayors as “the last link in a chain of deliberate and calculated delegitimization” and part of a “wider and undemocratic pattern.”
Referring to previous opinions by both the congress and the Venice Commission, the co-rapporteurs reiterated that the practice of replacing democratically elected opposition party mayors with trustees is “undermining the very nature of democracy.”
Noting that in its last session the congress reaffirmed the need to abolish this practice and called for candidates’ eligibility to be assessed before elections based on final convictions, Eray and Rudkin added: “We will bring these latest developments to the attention of the Congress Monitoring Committee on 25 February 2025 in Strasbourg.”
They also reiterated their call to Turkish authorities to stop this practice and resume the political dialogue with the congress rapporteurs to ensure the effective implementation of past recommendations.
Zeydan, a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), had won the March 31, 2024 local elections with 55 percent of the vote, defeating the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Abdulahat Arvas, who received 27 percent.
His removal is part of a broader pattern of government-appointed trustees replacing elected opposition officials in Turkey, where eight mayors from the DEM Party and two from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have also been removed from office over terrorism-related allegations since the March 2024 local elections. Additionally, another CHP mayor was arrested on charges of manipulating public tenders.
The practice has drawn international condemnation, with the European Parliament on Thursday passing a resolution condemning these dismissals and calling for sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on Turkish officials responsible for removing opposition mayors and undermining local democracy.
Lawmakers in Strasbourg described the trustee appointments as a clear violation of democratic principles and urged judicial reforms to abolish the practice.
Since a 2016 coup attempt, more than 100 municipalities — predominantly those governed by pro-Kurdish parties — have been placed under trustee control, with critics arguing that the government is using terrorism-related charges as a pretext to suppress political opposition. The European Union is facing growing pressure to take diplomatic and economic measures against Turkish authorities to uphold democratic norms and protect electoral integrity.
The repeated appointment of trustees in Kurdish-majority regions has also drawn criticism from human rights organizations, which argue that it undermines democracy and disenfranchises Kurdish voters.
