Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Emin Ay welcomed former Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Dr Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, who was removed from office and replaced by a government-appointed trustee and was released in recent days after seven years in detention, along with his wife, Zeynep Mızraklı. The meeting included an exchange of views on the overall situation in the city, local government work and municipal services.

Selçuk Mızraklı: Serving the City Is an Honourable Duty

Speaking during the visit, Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı thanked the Co-Mayors for their warm welcome. Emphasising that serving the city is an honourable duty, Mızraklı congratulated the Co-Mayors on their success in the election.

Mızraklı said that he and every resident of the city were ready to serve as voluntary advisers to the Co-Mayors, and wished them success in their work.

Co-Mayors: Our Thoughts Were Always with Our Colleagues in Prison

Expressing their pleasure at the visit, Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Emin Ay thanked Mızraklı for his service to Diyarbakır and its residents and for the work he had done for the city. During the meeting, which highlighted the importance of past experience, collective thinking and social solidarity in addressing the city’s problems, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak also spoke about the weight of the election period and the emotions surrounding it, recalling the difficulties of running an election campaign while two mayors were in prison. Co-Mayor Bucak said that when they entered the campaign period, Gültan Kışanak and Selçuk Mızraklı were still in prison, so their thoughts and hearts were always with the mayors behind bars.

The Co-Mayors were accompanied during the visit by Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Chief Executive Serdar Bakıroğlu; Deputy Chief Executives Muhabbet Erdoğmuş, Zerrin Türk, Özlem Tekin and Aziz Özdoğan; Council Co-Spokespersons Demet Ceylan and Ayhan Karatekin; and DİSKİ Director General Mehmet Şerifoğlu.