HDP holds talks at the CoE Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) representatives in Strasbourg brought together the three deposed HDP co-mayors living in exile in France and Germany and delegates of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

Ayhan Bilgen and Adalet Fidan, who were also removed from office after being elected as co-mayors of Kars and Silopi, were also planned to attend the talks, but both politicians are facing a ban on leaving the country because of the legal procedures they have been subject to, like thousands of other elected representatives of the Kurdish people in Turkey.

The talks were attended by the deposed Co-Mayor of Van Metropolitan Municipality, Bedia Özgörkçe Ertan, deposed Co-Mayor of Cizre Municipality Leyla İmret, and former mayor Veysel Keser.

Dismissed co-mayors, deputies, arrests, exiles, and other rights abuses were discussed at sessions organized by HDP representative Fayik Yağız.

The HDP delegation held talks with the Socialist Group President Karl-Heinz Lambert, Mayor of Ploeuc-l’Hermitage and Head of Delegation Thibaut Guignard from France, Deputy Mayor of Angers Benoit Pilet, Mayor of Greifswald Stefan Fassbinder from Germany, and Member of the Baden-Württenberg Regional Parliament Josef Frey.

Further meetings were held with the Monitoring Committee and a Dutch delegation.

The Monitoring Committee’s members who attended the meeting are as follows:

Gudrun Mosler-Toernstroem, Chairman of the Monitoring Committee and Member of the Municipal Council of Puch bei Hallein from Austria; Bernd Voehringer, Chairman of the Chamber of Local Authorities and Mayor of Sindelfingen; Vladimir Prebilic, Mayor of Kocevje in Slovenia, and Stewart Dickson, Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

The Dutch delegation included; Harald Bergmann, Mayor of Middelburg and Head of Delegation; Alexander Boomgaars, Member of the Amstel City Council at Ouderkerk aan, and Jan Markink, Regional Minister for the State of Gelderland.

The HDP delegation spoke about the persecution and corruption in the ‘trustee’ regime at HDP municipalities, which -they said- were used to fund AKP.

Members of the HDP delegation urged all elected officials they met to heed the HDP’s call and put it on the agenda of the Council of Europe institutions.

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