Diyarbakır Bar President Cihan Aydın reacted strongly against unseating of HDP Diyarbakır, Mardin, Van Metropolitan Co-Mayors. Aydın said Turkish democracy received a huge blow with what happened. Aydın drew attention to the fact that this was a governmental coup and added, “Unfortunately the unlawful situation we experienced back in 2016 happened again. 3 mayors who were elected with more than half of the votes where they were nominated were unseated. They were suspended, and governors were appointed in their place under a decree law, which is a product of a coup. This decision is null and void from a legal standing point. This decision can not be accepted in any shape or form. This is a governmental coup. We take this as not recognizing the decision given by the Supreme Election Board, a higher judicial body. As such, we can consider this a judicial and governmental coup by the hands of government and jurisdiction. After this there will be a legal battle which we will be included in as well. We are planning and thinking this way. This process may take a long time because there will be plea of nullity at administrative court. Pleas were made back in 2016 process as well but courts dismissed all of them without even an investigation, and showed the state of emergency as a reason for it. If I am not wrong, there are some of the issues on Supreme Court’s agenda and we also filed a case for not calling the municipal councilors in 2016. Supreme Court dismissed some of our cases. We applied to United Nations Constitutional Committee regarding these rejected files. Our applications are now pending.”

FAITH IN DEMOCRACY IS LOST

Aydın emphasized on the loss of faith for elections, democracy and the rule of law and said the following: “With this implementation, the Turkish democracy received a huge blow. The faith in elections, democracy, and rule of law is lost. The voters in those cities who voted for those mayors are more than a million and they most likely lost their faith in Turkish democracy. This situation of hopelessness also carries the potential of causing bad results for the communities. Because if you get rid of democratic ways and methods, people may go after other ways and methods. I hope this unlawful situation is corrected, mayors are given their seats back and the public can ease a little at least.   Translated by Demet Demir