ISTANBUL - SODAP member Fatma İnce said that the people should mobilize against the trustee policy, which she characterized as a usurpation of will, “Because the trusteeship can only be defeated with the unity of the social opposition” she said. 

 

Ahmet Özer, who was elected mayor of Istanbul's Esenyurt district in the March 31 local elections with the “Urban Consensus” model, was arrested after being detained on October 30. Istanbul Deputy Governor Can Aksoy was appointed as a trustee in Özer's place. On November 4, trustees were appointed to the municipalities of Mêrdîn (Mardin), Êlih (Batman) and Xalfeti (Halfeti-Urfa). 

 

Evaluating the trustee appointments, Socialist Solidarity Platform (SODAP) Central Executive Committee (MYK) member Fatma İnce stated that the trustee policy is a usurpation of the will of the people and said: “It is meaningful that trustees were appointed in the shadow of the debates reflected in the media as a solution or normalization. We see here that the will of the people is ignored and that there is an attempt to attack the struggle for unity and solidarity among the forces opposing the order. We evaluate this attack in this way. There is nothing legitimate about this situation.” 

 

'PEOPLE MUST TAKE ACTION'

 

Emphasizing that social opposition can be built on the streets, “At this point, we think that the people must take action on their own demands. Because the trusteeship can only be defeated with the unity of the social opposition. The trusteeship is a political coup, it was realized due to political conditions,” İnce said.  

 

EROL: TRUSTEESHIPS WILL CONTINUE UNLESS WE JOIN HANDS 

 

Evaluating the appointment of trustees as “a legal problem in the country”, Şafi Erol, co-chair of the Marmara Association for Assistance and Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners and Convicts (MATUHAYDER), pointed to the silence on the appointment of trustees in Kurdistan. “If we do not join hands, the current trusteeships will continue. A trustee was appointed to Esenyurt, one of the most important districts in Turkey. Ahmet Özer, the joint candidate of the parties, won Esenyurt Municipality. The fact that Ahmet Özer is being targeted here is an indication that other political parties also have a responsibility. That is why everyone must fulfill this responsibility. If they had really reviewed the trusteeships in Kurdistan, if there had been a serious reaction to this, trustees might not have been appointed in Esenyurt today,” he said.  

 

Emphasizing that the CHP and other opposition parties have a responsibility, Erol said: “We must oppose these trustee practices. There is a war in the Middle East today. But the government is waging war on its own people with these trustees. Can there be such a logic of governance? This is a serious regime of oppression. These people are hungry, picking tomatoes on the streets. A trustee is an insult to the people. That's why everyone needs to be sensitive from now on. I call on all political opposition parties, people of faith, everyone who says I am a human being to oppose the trusteeship. We want the appointed trustees to be withdrawn. The appointed mayors should be reinstated.”