ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The recently detained mayor of Turkey’s northeastern city of Kars has announced that he will resign from his position, saying he is too old to “play democracy.” “I have passed the age to play democracy. The conditions in Turkey are not convenient to play the game,” said pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayor Ayhan Bilgen in a tweet on Wednesday. “I will not allow the city to be tempered with arbitrary detentions. I will resign from my position - no matter if you arrest or release me - if no trustee is appointed until my detention period ends.” Bilgen was among the 82 people sought out by police on Friday for their alleged involvement in deadly protests in some Turkish cities during October 2014 after the Islamic State (ISIS) seized most of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane. The mayor and several other HDP politicians and members were detained on the same day. Bilgen said in the tweet that he was going to visit a police station to give his testimony. Aged 49, Bilgen is among the few HDP mayors elected in March 2019 that have managed to remain in their positions. Most of the officials have been detained and/or replaced by pro-government and unelected officials. Rudaw English has reached out to the HDP for comment on their mayor’s resignation. Turkish security forces responded to the 2014 protests with tear gas and water cannons. Ebru Gunay, HDP spokesperson, told Rudaw English on Friday that 34 of 37 the people killed were associated with the HDP. Hundreds of protesters and security force members were also injured. Gunay claimed that the Friday raids were “politically-motivated.” “The reasons for these operations are politically-motivated and the courts have become tools for this dirty and adversarial policy,” said the spokesperson. By targeting the HDP, the government in Ankara harms the country’s democracy, she added.
