Turkey imprisons more Kurdish lawmakers, intensifying crackdown

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkish authorities sent two more pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers Besime Konca and Caglar Demirel to prison on Tuesday, a day after their arrests by police in Ankara.

Prosecutors charge both in the seven-years-long, main trial of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a transnational umbrella organization led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that aims to implement local governance in Kurdish-majority areas.

Konca, a representative from the Province of Siirt, and Demirel of Diyarbakir who is also her party's head of parliamentary group were on Wednesday sent to Kandira Prison in the northwestern city of Kocaeli, said Kurdistan24 Ankara Bureau.

[The imprisoned pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) head of parliamentary group Caglar Demirel]

The Kocaeli prison, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Istanbul, is where earlier-jailed HDP Co-chair Figen Yuksekdag, lawmakers Gursel Yıldırım, Ferhat Encu, Idris Baluken, and Selma Irmak are being held.

Turkish police arrested Co-chairs Yuksekdag, Selahattin Demirtas and eight MPs in several cities during house raids in the early hours of November 6, in terror-related probes.

With the imprisonments of Konca and Demirel, the number of HDP MPs in pre-trial detention rose to 12.

The HDP won 59 out of 550 seats in the Turkish Parliament in November 2015 elections, becoming the second largest opposition block.

The arrests are part of a larger crackdown on Kurdish politicians, mayors, and party officials, ongoing in the aftermath of the botched July 15 military coup attempt against the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

More than 7,400 HDP members have been detained since then, of which 2,300 remain in prisons across Turkey, according to the party's spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen.

Editing by Ava Homa