The Turkish government removed a Kurdish mayor from office in the eastern province of Van following a terrorism conviction, appointing the governor as trustee in his place, after which police stormed city hall at dawn, using tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters and detaining 127 people, Turkish Minute reported.
The Interior Ministry announced the decision early Saturday, stating that Van Governor Ozan Balcı had been appointed as a trustee to run the municipality instead of Mayor Abdullah Zeydan, due to a court ruling sentencing the latter to more than three years in prison on charges of aiding a terrorist organization.
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.
At 4 a.m. local time on Saturday, police raided Van city hall following the appointment of Balcı to replace Zeydan. Officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters gathered outside the building. A total of 127 people, including six journalists, were detained during the operation.
The DEM Party, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat parliament, called the government’s move a “blatant usurpation of the people’s will.”
Since the March 2024 local elections, eight mayors from the DEM Party and two from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been removed from office in Turkey over terrorism-related allegations. Additionally, another CHP mayor was arrested on charges of manipulating public tenders.
Zeydan, previously a member of parliament for Hakkari, was first arrested in 2016 during a wave of detentions targeting lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the predecessor of the DEM Party. Prosecutors accused him of aiding a terrorist organization and making statements praising the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), citing his participation in a 2015 protest in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district. He was sentenced to eight years in prison but was released in 2022 after serving more than five years.
Following his election as mayor in 2024, Turkish authorities initially revoked his eligibility and awarded the mayorship to the AKP’s Arvas. This move led to widespread protests, after which the Supreme Election Council (YSK) reversed the decision and reinstated Zeydan as mayor.
The new legal action against Zeydan resulted in a renewed push by the government to remove him from office. The Interior Ministry cited the court ruling as justification, stating that Zeydan’s conviction rendered him ineligible to serve.
Zeydan protested the decision, calling it a “theft of the people’s will” and declaring that “the coup plotters will lose, the people will win.” His party condemned the appointment of a state official as mayor, urging civil society groups and opposition parties to take a stand against what they see as an anti-democratic crackdown.
The CHP also denounced the move, with İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu linking it to the AKP government’s frustration over losing key municipalities in the 2024 elections. “This is a blow to the Kurdish people’s right to vote and contradicts the so-called reconciliation efforts being proposed by the government,” İmamoğlu said.
What İmamoğlu was referring to as reconciliation efforts are renewed discussions about a potential peace between the Turkish government and the PKK, with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan playing a key role in negotiations after years of isolation. While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called this a “historic window of opportunity,” ongoing crackdowns on Kurdish politicians, including trustee appointments in pro-Kurdish municipalities, raise questions about the government’s commitment to political reconciliation.
The removal of Zeydan as Van’s mayor is part of a broader pattern of government-appointed trustees replacing elected opposition officials in Turkey, a practice that has drawn international condemnation.
The European Parliament on Thursday passed 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 the 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.
