Turkey detains pro-Kurdish HDP spokesperson

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkish police on Sunday arrested the spokesperson for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Ayhan Bilgen in the capital Ankara.

Bilgen who represents his northeastern home province of Kars and is a member of the human rights commission at the Turkish Parliament announced his arrest on Twitter.

He was to fly to Istanbul from Ankara’s Esenboga airport when police detained him, Bilgen tweeted shortly after the arrest, adding he would be taken to Diyarbakir.

It was not immediately clear why Bilgen was arrested, as his party called the move “lawless.”

A Kurdistan24 correspondent in Diyarbakir said a public prosecutor asked a court to put Bilgen in pre-trial imprisonment.

Bilgen was released toward the evening, the correspondent relayed at the time of publishing this report.

The HDP spokesperson’s detention followed those of three other lawmakers Huda Kaya, Meral Danis Bestas, and Altan Tan on Saturday.

Authorities later released Kaya, Bestas, and Tan after their interrogations by prosecutors.

Speaking to Kurdistan24 after his release in Diyarbakir, Tan said he was questioned for hours over 34 different cases mostly related to his speeches and political activities spanning from 2011 to 2016.

Tan also said most of the prosecutors who had filed those indictments against him were now in jail due to alleged ties with the movement of the US-based Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government accuse Gulen of masterminding the botched coup attempt six months ago.

“It is not clear what will happen to those who interrogate us today. There is no benefit to anyone [in detaining HDP MPs]. The best thing to do is a return to dialogue, peace, and negotiations,” Tan added.

The ongoing wave of arrests of HDP lawmakers began in October 2016 with midnight raids on the houses of a dozen MPs, including those of the party’s Co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.

Demirtas, Yuksekdag, and nine other MPs remain in prison. 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany