Turkish Regime Arrests Co-Chairs of Opposition HDP, 9 Other Lawmakers

ANKARA- The Turkish regime’s police forces have arrested the two leaders of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) along with nine other lawmakers from the same party, under the pretext that they refused to appear in court to give testimony in connection with an investigation launched by Diyarbakir’s chief public prosecutor over “accusations of spreading propaganda for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)”.

 Some media outlets said the move came to confirm the Turkish regime’s policy of suppressing public freedoms and the freedom of speech and to cover up the corruption of the Justice and Development Party government.

Turkish security forces detained Selahattin Demirtas at his home in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir and Figen Yuksekdag at her residence in the capital Ankara early on Friday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, citing unnamed security sources, reported.

According to the Turkish Interior Ministry, the other nine HDP lawmakers were also arrested on Friday. It added that detention orders were issued for 13 lawmakers, but only 11 MPs, including the two co-leaders, had so far been arrested as two other lawmakers were abroad.

“The HDP calls on the international community to react against the Erdogan regime’s coup,” the party said on Twitter.

Reports say that police raided and searched the party’s headquarters in central Ankara, after police cars and armed vehicles encircled the party’s main office.

Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Turkey, criticized the move, calling it a “very bad news from Turkey.”

EU Gravely Concerned about Detenstion

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the European Union is gravely concerned about the detention last night of several HDP Members of the Turkish Parliament among who were the party’s co-chairs Ms. Figen Yuksekdag and Mr. Selahattin Demirtaş, both democratically elected leaders.  She called for respecting the basic principles of democracy. 

Germany summons Turkish diplomat over opponent lawmakers’ arrests

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has requested that the chargé d’affaires in the Turkish embassy be summoned to the ministry for discussions about Turkey’s arrests of opposition lawmakers, the German Foreign Ministry has said.

 “The overnight arrests of politicians and lawmakers from the Kurdish HDP [Peoples’ Democratic Party] represent a further drastic intensification of the situation in the eyes of the foreign minister,” the ministry said in a statement on Nov. 4, according to Reuters.

Responding to the failed coup attempt of July 15 “cannot be a justification for silencing or even imprisoning the political opposition,” the statement stressed.

Agencies

Hamda Mustafa