The Region we are in is a place with different ethnic, religious, cultural identities. It is an important goal for us that everyone participates in local governments with their own identity. Women’s rights is also an issue we work on the most.
As HDP (People Democracy Party) municipalities, we have won dozens of mayorships in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Since 2014, we have implemented the co-mayor system by a woman and a man. However, since 2016, co-mayors elected in almost all elected municipalities have been dismissed for political reasons. Officers of political power were appointed in their place. Unfortunately, even the most basic rights cannot be exercised in Turkey. Minority, women and cultural rights are not recognized and democratic participation is not allowed. Me and my co-mayor Mrs Gultan Kisanak were (co-mayor of Diyarbakir) co-chair of UCLG-MEWA. We were arrested and dismissed in October 2016. Mrs Kisanak is still in prison.
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Creating assemblies according to themes (Women, youth, disabled, ecology, etc.)
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Participatory budget application
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Multilingual municipal services (Municipality's website and press)