Turkey arrests 18 in Kurdish city of Diyarbakir

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – At least 18 individuals were arrested in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir (Amed) in Turkey on alleged relations to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Diyarbakir Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor said 22 suspects are being investigated for links with the "outlawed" Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), a transnational umbrella group for PKK-affiliated organizations.

So far, four suspects remain missing and are wanted by the authorities.

According to a recent world report of Human Rights Watch (HRW), “terrorism charges (in Turkey) continue to be widely misused to restrict the rights to free expression and association.”

“There are no published official numbers of prisoners held on remand or convicted for alleged links with the PKK, although on the basis of the previous years’ figures the number is at least 8,500 and includes elected politicians and journalists,” the report said.

A government crackdown on the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) gained pace in the aftermath of the summer 2016 military coup attempt against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and has seen over seven thousand people jailed, including the party's co-leader Selahattin Demirtas and 11 other lawmakers.

Demirtas remains jailed despite two of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s rulings in favor of his release.

On June 7 to 9, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers will review the Turkish government’s failure to implement these rulings that ordered the release of the human rights defender Osman Kavala and the Kurdish politician Demirtas.

HRW, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project on Friday urged ECHR to push Turkey to implement the Kavala and Demirtas judgments.

Editing by Khrush Najari