Speaking at a meeting where Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) Numan Kurtulmuş and members of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission met with civil society representatives, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Serra Bucak said the gathering would contribute to democracy and peace, and underlined that co-mayors in municipalities where trustees have been appointed should be reinstated.
Following a visit to Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality as part of his programme in the city, TBMM Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and members of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission met civil society representatives at a hotel. Participants included MPs, Diyarbakır Governor Murat Zorluoğlu, Dicle University Rector Prof. Dr. Kamuran Eronat, and representatives of political parties and civil society organisations, alongside Co-Mayor Serra Bucak.
Co-Mayor Bucak: We regard today as highly meaningful and valuable
Addressing the Civil Society Meeting, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak greeted participants and emphasised the dignity of such engagements. She said:
“Mr Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş’s remarks at the opening of the university’s academic year were, for us, highly meaningful and valuable—indeed, very valuable for Diyarbakır. And of course, what is valuable for Diyarbakır is of great importance and value for the people of the region and for Türkiye as a whole.
“As we evaluate the process over the past year towards democracy and peace, we—those working within local government, in our municipalities and our cities, who sincerely wish for this process of peace and democratisation to reach a positive conclusion—naturally regard today as highly meaningful and valuable. I extend my sincere thanks to him for his visit.”
‘This meeting strengthens our faith in peace’
Co-Mayor Bucak said that holding such an inclusive and pluralist gathering in Diyarbakır strengthens confidence in peace and democracy, adding: “After 26 years, for a Speaker of the Grand National Assembly to host such an inclusive, constructive and broad-based meeting in Diyarbakır naturally deepens and strengthens our longing for, and belief in, peace and democracy.”
“As you know, our country has lived through difficult circumstances: periods of conflict, of pressure, of anti-democratic practices. Today, we share a mindset that seeks reckoning and reconciliation with those experiences, even as we move beyond them,” Co-Mayor Bucak continued. She noted that from 2016 up to the local elections of 31 March 2024, the city’s constituents and local civil mechanisms waged a democratic struggle against the appointment of trustees in place of elected local administrations.
Co-Mayor Bucak said she wished to read this important meeting—and Mr Kurtulmuş’s important visit—as an affirmation of the significance of local government and local elections in their city, of the importance of the ballot box, and as a stance that seeks to safeguard electoral legitimacy and local democracy: “And of course, we intend to maintain our confidence in this reading and in this process.”
Appointment of trustees to municipalities
Concluding her remarks, Co-Mayor Bucak said she believed the meeting would contribute to peace and democracy, starting from Diyarbakır, and added: “I would also like to end with a request. We were elected 18 months ago. In our localities and municipalities, we are obliged to deliver the most direct and appropriate services to the public. However, in our region—most notably in our Metropolitan Municipalities of Mardin and Van—we are unfortunately still experiencing a situation in which the elected co-mayors and the elected council are not in post and unable to discharge their duties; in other words, those whom the people elected are not by the people’s side. I hope that, in this transitional period, one of the most important moves for peace and democracy will be the removal of trustees in the near future—eliminating the trustee system so that it no longer has any place within Türkiye’s local government system—and the reinstatement of elected local administrations, the council and the co-mayors. I firmly believe this meeting will be highly productive, and I truly believe that, following this meeting, both the parliamentary commission and Mr Kurtulmuş, together with the distinguished delegation that has come here, will carry these outcomes forward—beginning in Diyarbakır but continuing with similar meetings in other provinces.”
Kurtulmuş: We will build a framework of fraternity
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, Numan Kurtulmuş, said they were going through an important period: “Since 5 August we have held 15 meetings. They have been very valuable. Not a single person has said, ‘We do not want peace.’ Everyone should be mindful of their language. We will not use a toxic, hurtful tone. This is a difficult process. The law and dignity of the Kurds must be protected. We will build peace, democracy and a framework of fraternity. We must not impose uniformity but accept differences. Instead, we must strengthen our differences—our richness. We will present the issues discussed in the Commission to Parliament and then address their legal dimensions. This time, we will certainly succeed.”
