Muhtar (title)

This article is about village heads in Turkey. For Arabic name, see Mukhtar.

Muhtar is the elected village head in villages of Turkey. In cities, likewise, each quarter has a muhtar, but with a slightly different status. Muhtars and their village councils (Turkish: İhtiyar Heyeti) are elected during local elections for five-year terms. However, political parties are not permitted to stand candidates for these posts.

Muhtars in villages

In each village, muhtar is the highest civil servant of the village. (There is no seat of mayor in a village). According to act 442 ^[1] the tasks of the muhtars are in two groups: Compulsory tasks are about public health, primary school education, security and notification of public announcements etc. Non compulsory tasks depend on the request of village residents.

Muhtar in cities and town

In each town there are several quarters. In a medium sized city there may be tens of quarters and in big cities the number may exceed well over 100. Each quarter has a muhtar. Quarters with more than 1000 homes may have more than one muhtar. The tasks of quarter muhtars are less than the village muhtars ^[2] like registering the residents of the quarter, providing official copies of birth certificates and ID cards etc.

References

1. ^ The act (from Turkish Wikisource)
2. ^ An essay on the tasks ((Turkish))