On recent dismissals and arrests of mayors in Türkiye

B100110/2025

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on recent dismissals and arrests of mayors in Türkiye

(2025/2546(RSP))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the European Charter of Local Self-Government

- having regard to Rule 150 of its Rules of Procedure

whereas Sofya Alagas, mayor of Siirt, was dismissed from office on 29 January 2025 following her sentence of six years and three months in prison for alleged membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK);

whereas Hoşyar Sarıyıldız, mayor of Akdeniz Municipality, was taken into custody on 10 January 2025, on charges, inter alia, of membership in an illegal organization, followed by his referral for arrest on 13 January 2025; whereas, the both co-mayors, as well as four municipal council members, were dismissed and replaced with a state-appointed trustee;

whereas on 12 January 2025, Riza Akpolat, the mayor of Istanbul's central Besiktas district, was detained by police in an investigation into an alleged criminal organization suspected of rigging public tenders;

whereas, on 30 October 2024, Ahmet Ozer, the mayor of Istanbul's Esenyurt district from main opposition party CHP, was arrested for alleged membership in the PKK;

whereas specific targeting of opposition politicians and mayors undermines the ability of the political opposition to exercise their rights and fulfil their democratic roles; is deeply concerned by continuous democratic backsliding in Türkiye;

calls on the Turkish authorities to abolish the practice of dismissals of democratically elected mayors on politically motivated charges, ensuring that ineligibility of candidates is assessed prior to the elections and is based only on final, lawful and impartial criminal convictions; to allow eligible and elected representatives to freely exercise their mandates in line with the European Charter of Local Self-Government and to grant municipal councils the power to independently select replacement mayors in the event of a lawful dismissal, and only for the period until new representatives are legitimately elected in a new election;

condemns Turkish Government’s decision to dismiss the democratically elected mayors of 10 municipalities and districts and to replace them with government trustees appointed by the Interior Ministry; regards this long-standing practice of appointing trustees as a blatant attack on the most basic principles of local democracy;

calls on the HR/VP to consider imposing restrictive measures under the EU Human Rights sanction regime on the Turkish officials accepting to be trustees and on those nominating them;

considers the decision of the Turkish government to return to this practice, after the last local elections of March 2024 as an indication, of its lack of commitment to fundamentally address the democratic shortcomings in the country; remaining one of the constraints to deepening EU-Türkiye’s relationship.

instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the EEAS, and the President, Government and Parliament of Türkiye and have it translated into Turkish.