Turkey arrests 55 Kurdish politicians in latest crackdown

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s anti-terror police units on Tuesday arrested at least 55 politicians in various districts of the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir.

The arrested were officials and heads of local branches of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Regions’ Party (DBP), reported Kurdistan24’s Diyarbakir bureau.

Police units in the central Kayapinar, Yenisehir, Baglar and rural Bismil, Lice, Cungus, Cermik, Cinar, Hazro and Silvan districts simultaneously raided the houses of HDP and DBP officials around 4:00 a.m., said the bureau.

It was not immediately possible to learn what charges a Turkish prosecutor directed against the Kurdish politicians.

HDP, with 59 seats mostly representing Kurdish constituencies, is the third largest block in the Turkish Parliament.

DBP, on the other hand, used to run over 100 municipalities before the Government started seizing them last September.

Only last week the co-chair of the DBP Kamuran Yuksek was released after five months of imprisonment while HDP’s Deputy Alp Altinors remained in prison since his arrest on Sep. 9.

There are already more than 2,500 members of the DBP in prisons across Turkey according to the party’s other Co-chair Sebahat Tuncel.

Elsewhere, in the Kurdish-Alevi province of Dersim, police units supported by soldiers raided and searched the houses of the Co-Mayor of the provincial capital Edibe Sahin.

Police investigated several other administrators of the municipality as well as DBP officials but did not arrest anyone.

In Bitlis Province, the Co-Mayors of the district of Ovakisla (Pirxûs), those of the town of Elcewaz, and six members of local councils were detained.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany