Following the 3-year and 9-month prison sentence given to Van Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Abdullah Zeydan, another DEM Party municipality was appointed a trustee. Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality also faced two trustee appointments in 2016 and 2019. We spoke to Serra Bucak, Co-Mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, about the social and political consequences of the trusteeship practices after Zeydan was sentenced to prison. Regarding the trustee appointments, Bucak said, ‘Even though the government persistently and stubbornly does not learn lessons from undemocratic methods, the people have always said and will say, 'No matter what you do, we are on the side of the just struggle.' The government must now digest and accept the will of the people and give up these anti-democratic practices."
You travelled to Van after the prison sentence given to Van Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Abdullah Zeydan, while the trustee decision had not yet been implemented. What kind of atmosphere did you encounter?
A people were resisting so that the municipality building would not be seized one morning and their elected officials would not be forced out. We really find it difficult to make sense of it. If there is a case against someone, they bring it forward and speed it up. The sentences given within these fictions are also controversial, especially Zeydan's sentence is very controversial. Local governments do not have time to lose an hour. There are many people out there waiting for their needs to be met. Our budgets are obvious, our debts are obvious. So it is a difficult process.
It was announced that Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality also had debts after the trusteeship. What kind of a financial picture are you facing today?
We are in search of external resources. We are trying to create resources through grants and funds. The debts remain. We inherited 2.5 billion TL of debt from the metropolitan municipality and a little more than 1 billion TL from Diyarbakır General Directorate of Water and Sewerage Administration. Of course, this is the visible part. There are also budgets that we are chasing but cannot find.
What do you mean?
For example, a European Union fund was received to provide combi boilers to families in need. We don't know if the combi boilers were bought or distributed. There is no invoice. We don't know which account the money was deposited into or out of. There are places that were not monitored during the trustee period, there are parks and facilities that belonged to us. We are trying to update who they were given to, how much they were given for. Whatever institutions can do for this city should be done in co-operation. But this is not the picture. For example, we meet with the Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports from time to time. Young people and children in this city need sports fields. Society is facing a great degeneration. Youth is facing substance abuse. We say "you have a budget." They refuse. It is the same for other institutions.
You said, “As a municipality, we don't have a minute to lose.” What are the most common demands of those who have come to Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality recently?
Job requests. We have tens of thousands of job applications. We cannot respond to any of them. There is great unemployment. The second demand is for social assistance. And of course there are demands for infrastructure issues. Women may apply because of family or social pressure. Young people also need study spaces. Let me also say that young people have a hope that is gradually disappearing. It is also very painful to see this. They do not learn a profession, they drop out of their education, they have no perspective.
Following the appointment of a trustee to Van Metropolitan Municipality, the number of trustees appointed to DEM Party municipalities has increased to 9 since the local elections of 31 March 2024. What kind of rights violations do the trustees cause as far as you observe?
As soon as the trustees arrive, the doors of that municipality are closed tightly. It is no longer possible to submit a request to the municipality or to contact the municipality. This is a loss of rights in itself. Secondly, the budget is made, but there is no public participation. The right of city components to participate is also taken away. The rights of civil society are also usurped. A centralised, usurping, plundering policy, a policy that does not listen to the people, a policy that does not give ear to the people, unfortunately captures the minds of the people. Imagine, you work in the municipality. As an employee, you cannot present an idea for this city and realise it. For example, our women's institutions were closed down during the trustee period. If we had a women's counselling centre in every district, violence against women would not have increased so much. The trustee system has a policy that disregards women's rights and increases violence. There is something that does not recognise the needs of society, on the contrary, it drives society into a vicious circle and unhappiness. In other words, the trustees also took away the right to happiness.
The trustees also prevent the Kurdish language. What is the reflection of these restrictions on the public and the damage they cause in society?
Language is a very important issue. It is a great self-confidence to be able to speak in your mother tongue. You have already built an outpost in the minds of children for a hundred years to prevent this mother tongue from being lived and taught. Many generations have grown up estranged from their mother tongue. We are talking about a generation that is ashamed of its own language. With eight years of trusteeship, a great pressure was established. Before the trusteeship, we had festivals where languages lived in friendship. We had Kurdish and Armenian theatre festivals. Plays would come from Yerevan, plays about women's struggle would come. It was a process in which multilingual work gained momentum. With the trusteeship, it turned into a monist mind. Our Kurdish courses and theatres were closed. We are trying to compensate. We have rolled up our sleeves to build new multilingual kindergartens. If you ask if there is as much demand as before, it has dropped a little. We are also questioning it. Maybe we made the announcement late because the existing kindergartens were in need of major maintenance and repair. In our culture and arts department, we focused on Kurdish theatre plays. We focused on multilingual theatre festivals. We are trying to increase diversity. On 21 February, on the way to Mother Language Day, there are a series of events. For example, on 8 February, the literary world of Mıgırdiç Margosyan was discussed in the Armenian church.
I would also like to know your opinion as mayor and the opinion of the people of Diyarbakır on the gentrification of a part of Sur after the curfews.
It's a strange situation. A fragmented state of mind. Everyone is aware of the ugliness there, but let me tell you something: People living in this city do not live in complete homogeneity. Not only intellectually, but also in terms of life. Therefore, there are some people who look at Sur, look at those “Toledos” and say “Not bad.” Let's face this reality. We are not going to argue with them. This is the most we can say: It's not beautiful when you look at it objectively. This place has ceased to be a place where people can go freely. This is the most important thing, not to mention the visual aspect. Who goes here the most? Those who come as daily tourists. Diyarbakır's authenticity is gone. The small neighbourhoods in Margosyan's book are gone. The “giaour neighbourhood” is gone. It hurts when you look at it like this. For those who know this, who live intertwined with that history or who were neighbours at that time, it is a devastating situation. That's why I can't go either. I can go as far as Surp Giragos Armenian Church. It gives me peace. I cannot walk beyond that. There was a war there. Then I return from the church, and we have another trauma at the Four-Legged Minaret (where Diyarbakır Bar Association President Tahir Elçi was shot). Memories are gone, those narrow streets are gone. The rightful share was taken there.
What kind of regression will be experienced if a trustee is appointed to the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality?
There would be a very serious reversal regarding the issue of the right to vote. It is very difficult to re-establish this. It is very despairing that people's faith in elections, in the ballot box, if they had “bir kırtik” (just a little) faith left, would collapse again. Of course, there is also the reality of a people who recovered and went to the polls again and voted. Otherwise, the public would not have increased this vote to 64 per cent after two trustees. If a trustee is appointed, the society withdraws into its own shell. I regret the moral pressure on the society. Our projects will be interrupted. And that would make us very sad. There are many things we want to do.
While an unnamed process is progressing, on the other hand, the appointment of trustees to the municipalities creates confusion among a section of the public.
Actually it is not confusion. It is perception management. Sometimes it takes two steps forward, sometimes one step back. Sometimes it increases the dose, sometimes it decreases it. I think the public also knows this. The society harbours a hope, even if it is a small one. If this process is about solving the Kurdish problem, the democratisation problem, the human rights problem, it should have an output that trustees will not be appointed, right? That is why it is not genuine. The process has not yet been named, it is still in limbo. We're not too familiar with the details. Let's say they appoint trustees for all of us. What will happen? Again a locked process, again an anti-democratic process. Then the economy will not recover either. A government trying to fix the economy shouldn't take so many political risks, right? If you make such a mess at the local level, the economic crisis and bottleneck will force you even more. Instability will also challenge you. You will start a process that will become more and more discredited against the outside world. It will become even more evident that a total change and transformation will be necessary.
“We are working on a fund for Sourp Sarkis”
Does the municipality have any activities for the Christian community in Diyarbakır?
Of course. For example, the Christian community did not set foot here during the trusteeship. After that eight-year interruption, we visited them and they visited us. We both participate in the events organised by the Armenian Foundation and cooperate with them. We came together to open courses in Syriac and Armenian at our Language Development and Protection Directorate. We are working on how much demand there will be and what kind of course options we can offer. On 25 December, we came together for the Christmas service at the Assyrian Church. Our Survey and Project Department is working on funding for the restoration of the Surp Sarkis Armenian Church. We will try to participate in the restoration work together. We are trying to expand our co-operation.
