Turkey arrests three for Barzani posters
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Turkish police briefly detained three people on Sunday for hanging posters of the Kurdistan Region's President Masoud Barzani at an Ankara convention, led by a pro-Kurdish political party, on the grounds they constituted a threat to Turkey's national security.
Kurdistan 24's Ankara bureau said the arrested individuals were members of the Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR), who were attending the party's seventh annual convention where flags of Kurdistan and pictures of Barzani were on display.
Ankara police raided the cultural center where HAK-PAR was holding its assembly, tearing down Barzani's pictures and detaining the three members.
"Why did you hang a banner with a picture of Barzani, who engages in activities threatening our national security and territorial integrity, such as conducting the recent unofficial, so-called referendum in violation of the international law and the Treaty of Lausanne," asked the police.
A copy of the police record Kurdistan 24 received from the detainees' lawyer showed that the slogan "Do not bow, the Kurdish people is with you," used in support of Barzani, was also deemed detrimental to Turkey's national security.
In the run-up to the referendum in August, Turkish authorities in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir banned HAK-PAR's posters, pamphlets, and billboards supporting the right to self-determination.
They also eventually prevented several conferences on the Kurdish referendum from taking place in Batman, Van, and Ankara.
Arrests and investigations against individuals for displaying Kurdish symbols have been widespread in Turkey, particularly in the aftermath of the collapse of a 2013-2015 peace process between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The referendum in the Kurdistan Region, which Turkey strongly objected for fear of similar demands by its Kurdish populace, created friction between Ankara and Erbil.
Editing by G.H. Renaud