Turkey arrests 20 former HDP members for alleged terror links
“Again our former provincial co-chair and the member of the PM [Party Council] Gunay Bilici has been detained. We have learned that about 20 people have been detained in different places,” tweeted HDP’s Izmir branch on Monday, adding that this crackdown will not undermine their efforts for more success in upcoming provincial and local elections.
The party earlier tweeted their former provincial co-chair Mahfuz Guleryuz was arrested at Izmir airport at 5 a.m.
“The pressure against our colleagues is meant to harm our party but we will not be frightened by any means,” it claimed.
These 20 former HDP members were arrested for allegedly using “praising words” for the jailed leader of PKK Abdullah Ocalan, according to Haberturk TV.
The agency added that the police are searching for another eight individuals with the same charges, claiming they have used Ocalan’s photos during the HDP’s most recent local election.
Their houses were searched, and digital materials and organization documents were confiscated, according to Haberturk.
The Turkish government designates the PKK as a terrorist organization. Any indication of support for the party or carrying the portrait of Ocalan can result in years of imprisonment.
The HDP believes the recent crackdowns are aimed at weakening it ahead of provincial and local elections which are to be held no later than March 2019.
An unnamed security source told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the arrested have suspected links with the PKK and its military wing the People’s Defence Forces (HPG).
HDP’s Ankara branch announced in a tweet that the arrestees also include lawyers and syndicates agents from Kars province.
The PKK and the HDP each deny any ties to the other. HDP leadership was asked by the Turkish state to help negotiate a lasting peace process with the PKK, but the process stalled in 2015.
Rudaw
