Turkey: dozens of members of the pro-Kurdish HDP party arrested
The Ankara prosecutor's office on September 25, 2020 issued arrest warrants against 82 people, including many members of the main pro-Kurdish party, the HDP.
AP Photo / Emrah Gurel
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The Ankara prosecutor's office on Friday morning, September 25, issued arrest warrants against 82 people, including many members of the main pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, the second opposition force in Parliament.
The facts for which they are accused date back to the fall of 2014, when demonstrations in support of the Syrian city of Kobane erupted in Turkey.
The HDP denounces political arrests.
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With our correspondent in Istanbul
,
Anne Andlauer
In the early hours of the day, police knocked on the doors of 82 people in seven provinces of Turkey.
The crackdown mainly targets members of the People's Democratic Party, the HDP, including the mayor of the city of Kars, in the east of the country, and former deputies or leading cadres of the main pro-Kurdish party.
What they have in common: they were all in office at the beginning of October 2014, when
demonstrations erupted in support of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane
, besieged at the time by the Islamic State group.
The protests had degenerated into violent clashes with the security forces but also between rival political groups.
According to the official report, 37 people had been killed.
The Ankara prosecution, which coordinates the investigation, accuses the suspects of having "
repeatedly called on the people to take to the streets with the aim of carrying out terrorist actions
".
Denouncing this crackdown six years after the fact, HDP officials blasted a "
political
"
operation
aimed, according to them, to further weaken their party, whose thousands of members have already been arrested in recent years.
Among them, the former co-leader of the HDP,
Selahattin Demirtas
,
imprisoned for four years
.
►
To read: Turkey: the repression continues against the HDP, the main pro-Kurdish party
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Turkey
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