RIHA - Stating that the usurpation of will is more political than legal, DEM Party Legal Commission Co-Spokesperson Sevda Çelik Özbingöl said: “As DEM Party, we filed a lawsuit on the grounds that this practice is a trustee appointment against all elected people.” 

 

The legal regulation regarding the appointment of trustees to the municipalities of Colemêrg (Hakkari), Esenyurt, Mêrdîn (Mardin), Êlih (Batman) and Xelfetî (Halfeti) of Riha (Urfa) has once again come to the agenda. In 2019, trustees were appointed once again, and municipality lawyers appealed the decision to the Council of State. In 2020, the Council of State upheld the decision of the Ministry of Interior, citing that the phrase “temporary assignment”, which was the basis for the trustee appointments, was included in the law. In the same year, many of the decisions to appoint trustees were appealed to the Constitutional Court, but many of them are still pending. 

 

 

DEM Party's Legal Commission Co-Spokesperson Sevda Çelik Özbingöl, made evaluations on the laws and articles used as justification for trustee appointments. 

 

Drawing attention to the phrase “the crime has not been finalized” in Article 47, which is used as a justification for almost all trustee appointments, Özbingöl said that there are many irregularities in the application of the law. Pointing out that the current government was also involved in the process of appointing a trustee based on the Constitutional Court, Özbingöl said that someone from the municipal council should be elected to replace the deposed mayor, but the government committed legal irregularities by appointing a governor, deputy governor or district governor. 

 

THE FILE JUSTIFYING THE TRUSTEESHIP RESULTED IN ACQUITTAL

 

Reminding of the trustee appointed to replace Hatice Çevik, who was elected Co-Mayor of Pirsûs (Suruç) Municipality of Riha in the 2019 local elections, Özbingöl said: “Çevik was arrested in 2019 and a trustee was appointed to Suruç Municipality. The file that justified Çevik's arrest was prepared that year. A 'temporary' trustee was appointed to Suruç on the grounds of this file. However, Çevik was acquitted of this case in 2023. Even this situation reveals the unfairness of the trustee practice. The situation in Halfeti is no different from this.” 

 

'RIGHT TO VOTE' IS PREVENTED

 

Özbingöl noted that the trustees appointed to the municipalities of Istanbul's Esenyurt district, Mêrdîn, Êlih and Xelfêtî districts, starting with Colemêrg this semester on the grounds of Article 47, also prevented the municipalities from functioning by de facto appointing municipal council members. 

 

Stating that the trustee practice prevents the use of many constitutional rights, especially the “right to vote and be elected”, Özbingöl said that they filed a lawsuit against this as the DEM Party Legal Commission. Özbingöl stated that they also asked the citizens who came to the DEM Party's Provincial and District Organizations to apply to the Constitutional Court on the same grounds and said the following: “As DEM Party Headquarters, we filed a lawsuit on the grounds that this practice is a trustee appointment against all elected officials. We find it important that the court process is taken. It is indisputable that this process has more political than legal aspects.”