Türkiye: Pro-Kurdish party sees itself cheated out of mayoralty

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Protests in Istanbul on Tuesday: What happened in Van?

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Yasin Akgul / AFP

There were violent protests in the eastern Turkish province of Van following the nationwide local elections. The pro-Kurdish party DEM, the successor party to the HDP, sees itself cheated out of a mayoral office. It is said that their candidate Abdullah Zeydan was declared ineligible at short notice. Instead, the second-place candidate, a candidate from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP, was appointed mayor. According to DEM, Zeydan got 55 percent of the votes on Sunday.

The background to the decision to exclude Zeydan from the election was a court decision from 2022. At that time, after serving a prison sentence, Zeydan applied to regain all civil rights - including those to run for political office. The court approved the application at the time, but withdrew its own decision two days before the election. Without informing Zeydan about it.

Van Province is predominantly inhabited by Kurds and is located around 80 kilometers from the border with Iran. The DEM also suspects electoral fraud in other provinces in southeastern Turkey, where it finished behind the AKP. She wants to have the votes counted again in Bitlis, Sirnak and Kars.

According to media reports, several people in Van took to the streets in solidarity with Zeydan. The police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd of several hundred demonstrators who had gathered in front of the DEM office. The protests against the annulment of his election reached far beyond Van - supporters of Zeydan also took to the streets in Istanbul.

Protest from Ankara and Istanbul

In the capital Ankara, DEM co-chairman Tuncer Bakirhan denounced a “political coup.” The decision was "unacceptable," wrote Istanbul's re-elected mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu from the opposition CHP party on X. He called on the government and the electoral commission to "respect the will of the people." The local elections were seen as a test of sentiment after last year's presidential election; Imamoğlu's victory was seen as a defeat for Erdoğan.

The incident is reminiscent of the dismissals of pro-Kurdish local politicians in the past: In the 2019 local elections, the pro-Kurdish party under the name HDP won 65 mayoral positions - but the government in Ankara had the majority of the politicians removed from office due to terrorism allegations and replaced by receivers.

hba/dpa/AFP