The trustees appointed by the AKP to the municipalities in 2016 and 2019 channelled all the resources of the city to their supporters. Êlih Municipality, which has been under trustee management since 2016, is one of these municipalities. The trustee, who was appointed to the municipality for the second time on March 23, 2020, consumed all resources and put the municipality under a debt burden that it could not bear. 

Governor Hulusi Şahin, who was appointed as a trustee upon the instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, takes the decisions he wants with the signatures of the civil servants instead of the elected municipal council. Corruption, profiteering, bans and restrictions on the Kurdish language, as well as arbitrary practices during the trustee period know no bounds. We scrutinized the practices of the Aliyah trustee towards the elections to be held on March 31.

 

HOSTILITY TO KURDISH

 

The trustee's first action was to remove the Kurdish language option from the municipality's website on March 29, 2020. The trustee's hostility towards Kurdish continued with the removal of the "pêşî peya" (pedestrian first) warnings written in Kurdish in order to give pedestrians priority right of way on the streets. The bust of the Kurdish poet Cegerxwîn, which was placed in Kine Em Park in Fatih District in 2007, was removed on June 21, 2022. The area where Yılmaz Güney Cinema was located, which was burned down after being closed by the trustee, was changed and turned into a park. On the instructions of the trustee, the event of young people wearing Amedspor jerseys and making Kurdish music on Gulistan Street on March 9 last year was prevented by the police.

 

IRREGULAR APPOINTMENTS

 

During the trustee period, irregular appointments were always on the agenda. AKP Siirt Provincial Youth Branch President İbrahim Hamit Bedük was appointed as the Municipality's Private Secretary on June 30, 2021. On October 22, 2021, 20 people who were recruited for the previously announced security personnel recruitment by Batman Municipality Personnel Inc. to work within Private Security and who were not even included in the draw despite their grades in the interviews, went to the governor's office, stating that they were treated unfairly and that there was a "torpedo" in the interviews. Deputy trustee Adnan Yörük hired his daughter Sena Yörük as a civil servant in January 2021.

Metin Gürbüz, the husband of Adile Gürbüz, who was AKP Batman Provincial Vice President for a while and was an AKP parliamentary candidate in the 2015 elections, was appointed as deputy trustee shorLirasy after being hired without an examination. Gürbüz, who was found at fault in the death of worker Nuri Aydın, is still on duty.

 

11 PROPERTIES ARE LISTED FOR SALE

 

In May 2021, 825 thousand Liras was spent for image work, and the spot videos shot were served to pro-government TVs as "news". The municipality spent 500 thousand Liras from its coffers for "events" to be held during Ramadan in 2021, when there were curfews due to the pandemic. The trustee put even the public road up for sale along with 11 properties. Among the immovable properties put up for sale, there are many places such as a nursery, children's playground, library, study center, fire station, women's guest house, and elderly chat house, which were planned as social reinforcement areas during the People's Democratic Party (HDP) period. The trustee put the Wheat Market, which had 116 tradesmen, up for sale. However, since there was no participation in the tender, there was no sale.

 

Batman Park AVM, which is the largest immovable properties property of the municipality and valued at 635 million 375 thousand LIRAS by the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) Êlih Provincial Coordination Board (İKK), is owned by Golden Park A.Ş., which is also managed by AKP Provincial Chairman Akif Gür. It was sold to 150 million LIRAS. As a result of the reactions, the decision was cancelled.

 

BUDGET WAS SPENT ON OTHER INSTITUTIONS

 

The appointed trustees covered even the Training and Research Hospital, the Police Chief's Mansion, the Beşiri District Governor's residence, the Landscapes around the MİT, the Directorate of Environment and Urbanization, and the roads and pavements within the Commando, which are not within the service area of the municipality and whose funds are covered by other ministries, from the municipality's budget. The trustee also gave the Provincial Police Department Additional Service Building to the Knossos Road Industry and Trade Limited Company Maze Petrol Construction Electrical Electronics Transportation Service Procurement Garment Industry and Trade Limited Company Business Partnership for 6 million 283 Liras from the municipal budget.

 

DEVELOPMENT RENT WAS ESTABLISHED

 

With the decision taken on December 6, 2022, the trustee opened a large area for development, including Girêsîra town, Selivê village, Girbereşk District and Êlih Stream. In line with the decision passed by the "City Council" consisting of appointed people, it was decided to establish an Organized Industrial Zone (OIZ) on the edge of the Êlih Stream. RecenLirasy, work has been initiated to establish an OIZ here. Here, the tea that meets the city's water and oxygen needs has become endangered.

 

Many houses were flooded as a result of heavy rain on November 19, last year, due to the water channel close to the residential area in SeyiLiraser District being covered with concrete. Due to this negligence, Lalihan Güner (54) and her grandchildren Asenat (1), İsrafil (5) and Birgül Güner (9) lost their lives.

 

MA / Fethi Balaman