DEM Party Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan reacted to the detention of 59 people, including the mayors, in an operation targeting Mersin Metropolitan Municipality and 2 district municipalities. In a joint statement, they said the detentions of Mersin Metropolitan Mayor Vahap Seçer, Yenişehir Mayor Abdullah Özyiğit and Mezitli Mayor Ahmet Serkan Tuncer were unacceptable. They argued that the detention of elected officials had ceased to be isolated incidents and that the will expressed at the ballot box was being suppressed through judicial proceedings. They maintained that declaring people guilty and detaining them before proceedings had begun rendered the popular will ineffective. Stating that, under the trustee system, the right to vote was recognized but the right to govern was not, they said, “Whoever the people of Mersin elected should govern Mersin,” and called for democratic politics, legal certainty and social peace.
Why it matters
This statement shows that the judicial process in Mersin is not being viewed as limited solely to those detained, but has sparked a broader political debate over the elected status of local administrations. At the center of the debate is the balance between a mayor’s ability to continue in office and how the judicial process should be conducted. The DEM Party’s objection brings to the fore the question of what criteria will determine the boundary between voters’ preferences and intervention by judicial authorities. The issue that must be clarified in the period ahead is the impact of the detentions on the administration of the municipalities and whether trustees will be appointed in place of the elected officials; the statement calls for political and legal guarantees on these matters.
Background
The party is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: in the last 90 days, we have published 17 reports mentioning this name; the latest was dated 29 September 2026.