Muhtar (title)
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.
Rural muhtars
In each village, muhtar is the highest elected authority of the village. (There is no seat of mayor in a village). According to the Law No 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 demands of village residents.
Urban muhtars
In each town there are several neighbourhoods. In a medium sized city there may be tens of neighbourhoods and in big cities the number may exceed well over 100. Each of these has a muhtar. The tasks of urban 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.