Turkey should stop pre-election crackdown on Kurds: international organizations

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Eighteen International organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) demand Turkey to release Kurdish  journalists,  political party officials, and lawyers, who were arrested in police raids on Thursday.

Turkey: Pre-election crackdown on Kurdish journalists, lawyers, political party officials - @hrw and 17 media freedom and freedom of expression groups condemn the latest detentions days before the elections and call for their immediate release https://t.co/CR28vrLDfG pic.twitter.com/HujU6E6K8q

— Emma Sinclair-Webb (@esinclairwebb) April 25, 2023

Read More: Nearly 110 people detained in 21 cities in Turkey ahead of Turkish elections: HDP

The organizations called on Turkish authorities to "stop the systematic harassment and intimidation of Kurdish journalists, media workers, media outlets, lawyers, and Kurdish political party officials.”

“We reiterate the need for a free and pluralistic media atmosphere in the run up to the elections that will be held on May 14, 2023,” the organizations said.

On Thursday, at least 128 people, mostly pro-Kurdish journalists, lawyers, rights defenders, political activists and artists in 20 provinces, were arrested.

The organizations said the arrests “represent another step in the systematic harassment and intimidation of Kurdish media and political opposition in the country.”

Read More: ​​Several Kurdish officials arrested in Turkey ahead of elections

Also in late March, dozens of Kurdish officials of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) were arrested.

In anticipation of a ruling by Turkey's Constitutional Court to ban the country's second largest pro-Kurdish opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the party has changed its name for the upcoming elections to the Green Left Party.