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Abdullah Zeydan, the ousted mayor of Van from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), has urged Turkey to end its controversial policy of appointing government trustees to replace elected mayors, during a speech at the Council of Europe (CoE).
Zeydan, a former lawmaker for the now-defunct Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the predecessor of the DEM Party, is one of the more than a dozen DEM Party mayors who were removed from office after their election in the March 2024 local elections.
Although he won the vote, receiving 55 percent of public support, Zeydan was removed from office in February by the interior ministry due to a conviction on terrorism-related charges. Van Governor Ozan Balcı was appointed as a trustee, replacing him.
Avrupa Konseyi Yerel ve Bölgesel Kongresinin 49. Genel kurul toplantısı öncesinde birlikte kongre üyesi olduğumuz sevgili Kader Uzun, DEM Parti Avrupa Konseyi temsilcisi sevgili Faik Yağız ve diplomasideki arkadaşlarımızla birlikte Kongre başkanı sayın Marc Cools ve Türkiye… pic.twitter.com/JHKZhS0qh4
— Abdullah Zeydan (@AbdullahZeydan) October 28, 2025
Zeydan, who spoke at the 49th session of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities on Tuesday, called on the international community to take a stronger stance against what he described as the “usurpation of the people’s will,” saying that the government’s trustee appointments and mass detentions of elected officials have eroded democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.
“For inclusive democracy and lasting peace, Kurds and the broader democratic opposition have paid a heavy price,” he said, adding that hundreds of elected officials, politicians and activists in Turkey, including imprisoned Kurdish politicians Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, remain unjustly imprisoned.
The Kurdish politician also criticized Turkish authorities for ignoring rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), calling on the CoE to take stronger action to ensure compliance.
Referring to an ongoing peace process aimed at resolving the decades-long armed conflict between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey, he said it was essential for the state to take steps toward democratization, calling such moves “an inevitable requirement for lasting, just and social peace.”
“One of the most urgent steps toward democratization is to immediately end the trustee policy. There is also a great need for encouraging initiatives to lift the reservations that Turkey has placed on the European Charter of Local Self-Government,” he said.
The European Charter of Local Self-Government, adopted by the CoE in 1985, guarantees the political, administrative and financial independence of local authorities — rights that critics say are routinely violated in Turkey through the appointment of state trustees.
Zeydan’s and other mayors’ removal from office marked the continuation of Ankara’s long-standing policy of replacing elected officials from pro-Kurdish parties with state-appointed trustees, which began following a failed coup in 2016.
The appointment of trustees is not limited to DEM Party mayors, with mayors from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) also hit by the controversial practice.
According to a new report from the party, trustees have been appointed to 13 municipalities run by the CHP since the March 2024 local elections, while 16 CHP mayors including İmamoğlu, are currently in jail amid an ongoing crackdown on the party, which began a year ago.