Trustee assigned to Diyarbakir Municipality

Cumali Atilla, the governor of Etimesgut province of Ankara, is assigned to Diyarbakir Municipality as a trustee. It is reported that he will take the office starting from tomorrow morning. 

Gültan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı had been detained on October 25. After 5 days in detention, they got arrested.

Arrested on charge of “being a member of a terrorist organization”, Kışanak and Anlı were sent to a prison in Kocaeli city.

Kışanak and Anlı got 55% of the votes in the election in 2014.

Swedish municipalities' letter concerning Kışanak and Anlı

Mayors of 30 locations in Sweden sent a letter to AKP government, condemning the arrest of mayors and the practice of assigning trustees to Kurdish municipalities.

In the letter, they urged AKP government to respect the basic principles of human rights and law and to release all mayors including Kışanak and Anlı.

Pointing out that 28 Kurdish mayors have been arrested and trustees have been assigned to several municipalities, Swedish mayors stated that preventing popularly elected mayors from performing their duty is a threat against democracy.