Turkey briefly arrests pro-Kurdish HDP spokesperson
Upon his release from the brief detention, Baydemir told Kurdistan24 the Turkish government “wanted to silence the HDP” with the ongoing crackdown on his party.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Turkish authorities on Friday arrested then released the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker and spokesperson Osman Baydemir in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
Kurdistan24s bureau in Diyarbakir said police arrested Baydemir while he was visiting the bar association where a memorial ceremony was underway for the prominent human rights lawyer Tahir Elci who was slain in November 2015.
There was already an arrest warrant issued on Tuesday for Baydemir, a representative at the Turkish Parliament for the ethnically-mixed Sanliurfa Province.
“Insulting a state employee” were among the accusations Baydemir faced during the interrogation by a local prosecutor.
Baydemir allegedly insulted Turkish police officers in November 2012 while he was still the Mayor of Diyarbakir at a demonstration in support of a then ongoing hunger strike by Kurdish political prisoners.
Upon his release from the brief detention, Baydemir told Kurdistan24 the Turkish government “wanted to silence the HDP” with the ongoing crackdown on his party.
In the aftermath of the failed 2016 summer coup against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kurdish political movement became a prime target of the government.
Since November 2016, over a dozen HDP lawmakers have on different occasions been arrested and put in prison.
The party’s Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas and 11 other lawmakers remain jailed along with the mayors of over 80 Kurdish towns and cities.
The crackdown has also seen the removal of two HDP MPs, the party’s former Co-chair Figen Yuksekdag and Nursel Aydogan from the Parliament so far.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Kurdistan24 Diyarbakir bureau contributed to this report)