ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Tuesday slammed a Turkish court’s decision to revoke the party’s Van candidate’s right to participate in the elections as a result of him having served time in prison, invalidating his win on Sunday.
DEM Party announced that five minutes before the end of working hours on Friday, the Turkish justice ministry objected to Van’s court decision to reinstate party’s Van candidate Abdullah Zeydan’s suspended rights, with the chief prosecutor’s office appealing to the court to revoke the decision on the same day, rendering his candidacy invalid.
The pro-Kurdish party picked former member of parliament Zeydan to run for the mayoralty of the city of Van as one of its co-candidates, together with Neslihan Sedal, in Turkey’s local elections on Sunday. The party won the province by a landslide, as its candidates emerged victorious across all of the province’s 13 districts, and Zeydan won the metropolitan municipality's mayoralty.
Zeydan, who was arrested in November 2016 and remained in prison for terror-related charges until January 2023, was given a “reinstatement of suspended rights,” meaning clearance to take part in elections, from a Van court in 2022.
“On the same day, the court revoked the final decision on the suspended rights [of Zeydan] and rejected the request for reinstatement,” the DEM Party said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the Turkish electoral body was informed immediately of the appeal by the court, meaning Zeydan would not be able to take part in the vote.
“The same court that had decided to accept the reinstatement of the suspended rights of our co-Mayor Abdullah Zeydan, violated its own decision and undermined the rule of law. This attempt is a product of an understanding that disregards the will of the people,” added the statement.
DEM Party leaders labeled the decision a “political ambush” against Zeydan.
“A political ambush is being laid against the people of Van in the person of our co-mayor Abdullah Zeydan, whose candidacy was declared by the YSK [Turkey’s electoral commission] itself, after passing all the inspections of the YSK and the law,” DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan said on X, stating that the justice ministry’s decision was “unlawful”.
“If the will of the people of Van is not protected today, the will of another city will be disregarded tomorrow,” he added, calling on the political parties to support the mayor-elect.
“The ballot box results in Van are the choice of the people of Van. Changing these results through fraud and conspiracy is a clear blow to the will of the people,” DEM Party co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari stated on X.
“While calling on the government to respect the will of the people, we invite everyone, especially the people of Van and the democratic public, to be sensitive to this obvious injustice and theft of will,” she added.
“You have to respect the will of the people, this [winning the mayoralty] is not a favor. We will not allow the usurpation of what is our right … we invite the entire democratic public to take responsibility and show solidarity,” Aysegul Dogan, DEM Party spokesperson said during a press conference.
Turkey held its local elections on Sunday, according to preliminary results, the DEM party garnered 5.7 percent of the overall votes across the country. The party won the mayoralty of Van as well as nine more Kurdish provinces in the country’s southeast.
The vote also saw the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) fall behind its main opposition rival the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for the first time since coming to power 22 years ago.
In the 2019 local elections, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), DEM Party’s sister party won the mayoralty in eight provinces. However, dozens of elected pro-Kurdish mayors were stripped of their offices over the years and replaced with state-linked trustees due to their alleged links with the Kurdish rebels.
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