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🇹🇷 Turkey /Elections & Politics

Council members are tied, and Üsküdar votes again on Wednesday: Sinem Dedetaş sends a crucial message

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • A renewed Üsküdar municipal council election will take place with 21 CHP and 21 AKP members eligible to vote.
  • The vote follows the detention and removal from office of Mayor Sinem Dedetaş, an earlier four-vote victory by Sibel Tan Tan Çetinkaya, and a decision to repeat the election after an AKP objection.
  • Dedetaş, who remains detained, urged supporters to defend democratic rights and the rule of law in a letter to Üsküdar residents.

Üsküdar will hold a renewed municipal council election with the two main blocs exactly tied: 21 members from the Republican People's Party (CHP) and 21 from the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The vote follows the detention and removal from office of Üsküdar Mayor Sinem Dedetaş on July 31. In an election held on August 5, Sibel Tan Tan Çetinkaya won by four votes, but AKP council members objected and the election was ordered to be repeated. Before the new vote could take place, four CHP members joined the AKP and two members were detained.

Dear neighbors, you did not leave us alone.

· Sinem DedetaşDedetaş opened her letter by thanking Üsküdar residents for their support while she remained detained.

Üsküdar residents gathered outside the municipal building at the call of the New Party ahead of the election. From detention, Dedetaş sent residents a letter that was shared on social media. She thanked supporters and said she had been separated from her loved ones and Üsküdar for 40 days.

Those who give up are condemned to carry the burden on your consciences and in our hearts. We are nobody's atonement.

· Sinem DedetaşShe used the closing section of her letter to say that supporters had not abandoned democratic principles.

Dedetaş also referred to the detention of council members Amine Cansu Çelik and Ekrem Baki, as well as deputy mayor Filiz Deveci, who she said had been jailed for five months. She praised them for standing by what she described as the people's will and asked for applause for all detained colleagues.

The mayor highlighted what she called equal representation of women in the municipality's senior management and said her administration had worked for the public interest while maintaining political courtesy. She wrote that elected officials who believe in the people's will, democratic rights and the rule of law had not abandoned their principles. "Those who give up are condemned to carry the burden on your consciences and in our hearts. We are nobody's atonement," she wrote before thanking CHP and New Party council members and others supporting the election effort.

We, the women of the Republic, followed in the footsteps of our founding leader, prioritizing the public interest, never abandoning political courtesy and valuing people simply because they are human.

· Sinem DedetaşDedetaş described the principles she said guided her administration.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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