VAN - Critisizing the ban on demos and activities in Van which has been going on for 1.363 consecutive days, HDP Deputy Co-Chair Ümit Dede said: "The Van Governor acts as the provincial president of AKP."

 

The Van Governorate regularly bans all actions and activities in the city every 15 days since 21 November 2016, citing the State of Emergency (OHAL) declared after the 15 July military coup attempt. While opposition parties and associations in the city are not allowed to organize demonstrations or events of any kind, AKP's provincial and district organizations and women's branches can organzie anything they want, anytime. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Deputy Co-Chair, responsible for the Law and Humans' Rights Commission Ümit Dede said: "On the one hand, the Van Criminal Court of Peace says that the governor's ban decision is against the law. On the other hand, the lawsuits filed against the bans are rejected by the Van Administrative Courts." 

 

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CITY 

 

Referring to the fact that the ban decision of the governorship does not have a legal basis, Dede reminded that there are 18 different law suits filed by Van Bar Association regarding the bans, added that as the HDP Law Commission they filed a law suit for the annulment of this prohibition decision. Pointing out that the Van Administrative Court have rejected all law suits filed by the bar association, Dede said: "It is definitely not possible to accept that the court decision is in accordance with the law. As you know, the Governorship states that the 11 C article of the law numbered 5441 is the basis of these prohibition decisions. However, if there are signs of a serious danger stipulated in the relevant article, a 15-day ban may be taken by the Governorship. However, none of the reasons put forward in the decisions of the governorship are related to the province of Van. In other words, the governorship decides to ban all actions and demonstrations on the statements or calls made by some organizations from other cities. There is no evidence of these organizations existing in Van. This authority given to the governorship is not unlimited. It is both a time limited in 15 days and a spatially limited authority according to law."

 

LOCAL REFLECTION OF THE SYSTEM

 

Dede pointed out that the courts have become an authority that approves, not supervises, the acts and actions of the executive, and said that they have no doubts that these decisions will be annulled in the future with the Regional Appeal, Council of State and Constitutional Court.Emphasizing that another dimension of the ban is political, Dede continued: “Our country is governed by the Presidential system. The President, who runs the country, is also the leader of a party. A political party's president is also the president of the country so we happen to be a country ruled by a party.  Governors are appointed by presidential decrees. Therefore, the governors act as if they were the provincial heads of the political party, appointed by the president. We see that clearly in Van. You know that any event organized by the AKP is allowed while events HDP or another political party or association wants to make are banned. Therefore, we are face to face with the reflection of the system in its local dimension."

 

Dede reminded that fines were imposed on the party members and administrators on the grounds that the governorship ban was not obeyed in the protests carried out to draw attention to the hunger strikes held in prisons in 2019. Stating that the objections to the administrative fines were annulled by the Criminal Court of Peace on the grounds that they were unlawful, Dede said, “It has been proved by the court how this prohibition decision of the governorship is against the law. Van Criminal Court of Peace Judge indirectly gave an indirect annulment decision against this ban by the Governorship. On one hand, the Van Criminal Court of Peace says the ban is against the law while Van Administrative courts keep rejecting the law suits filed against these bans until now."