Emin Ay, a member of the municipal council in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, will take over as co-mayor following the resignation of Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party’s (DEM Party) Doğan Hatun.
The new co-mayor was selected following consultations with the municipal council, the DEM Party’s provincial and district organizations and democratic institutions in the southeastern province, the pro-Kurdish party and the municipality said in a statement.
The selection was conducted in line with the procedures and principles outlined in the party’s Democratic Local Governments Declaration, according to the statement.
Born in 1970 in the village of Tuzla in Diyarbakır’s Kulp district, Ay graduated from a faculty of theology. He previously served on the executive board of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a predecessor of the DEM Party, and worked for an extended period with the Democratic Islam Congress.
He was elected to Diyarbakır’s municipal council from the province’s Çınar district in the March 2024 elections.
DEM Party said Hatun’s resignation was accepted after an assessment of his health and the demands of his position.
“Considering the intense pace and heavy responsibilities required by the position he undertook and the work he represented, it was concluded that it was not possible to address these health problems under these conditions,” the statement said.
Diyarbakır, a major city in southeastern Türkiye, is governed under a co-mayoral system in which the DEM Party typically appoints one male and one female mayor to share executive responsibilities.
