Roj Bash Kurdistan

Turkish police have arrested HDP leaders Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtas

Two co-leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey and at least 13 more MPs were detained overnight as police raided homes in Ankara and eastern Kurdish-majority areas. The arrests are linked to “terrorist propaganda” cases, Reuters said.

Police broke into the home of HPD co-leader Figen Yüksekdağ in Diyarbakir and detained her early Friday, while Selahattin Demirtas was detained in his Ankara house.

The party’s lawyers told Reuters that 13 other HDP parliamentarians were also arrested in the raids. Local media reported that other than in Ankara and Diyarbakir, the arrests have been made in the eastern and southeastern Turkish cities of Hakkari, Mardin and Batman.

The HDP, which is in strong opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and supports the Kurdish- and other minorities, has been accused of having links to the Kurdish militant group PKK, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.

16 MPs from pro-Kurdish - nearly a third of the party - in custody or had their homes searched tonight. Rumours of warrants out for all 59.

https://www.rt.com/news/365288-turkey-a ... p-leaders/

Turkey pro-Kurdish leaders Demirtas and Yuksekdag detained

The two co-leaders of Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP opposition party have been detained along with other MPs

Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag were detained at their respective homes as part of a counter-terrorism inquiry, security sources quoted by Anadolu news agency said.

At least nine other HDP MPs were also taken into custody.

Meanwhile social networks could not be accessed from inside Turkey.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Whatsapp were reported to be inaccessible shortly after the detentions, even when users tried to circumvent restrictions using a virtual private network (VPN).

Mr Demirtas had tweeted about his arrest before the sites were restricted.

Another MP from the party who is currently abroad, Ertugrul Kurkcu, told the BBC that the detentions were "totally unlawful".

(Actually the arrests were totally legal because the HDP - especially Demirtas - has been openly supporting the PKK and causing conflict within the party itself due to that fact)

He said: "This crackdown tonight is nothing to do with procedural law, criminal law, any law whatsoever or the constitution. This is an unlawful hijacking of HDP parliamentarians.

"The Turkish government is heading towards a dictatorship of Nazi style [sic].

"Will the Turkish government abide by the internationally accepted standards of parliamentary democracy? This is the basic question."

Last month, the co-mayors of Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city were detained, also as part of a terrorism investigation.
State of emergency

Police searched the HDP's head offices in central Ankara as well as making the arrests.

Turkey claims that the HDP has links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group, but the party strongly denies this.

The PKK is deemed a terrorist organisation by the US, the European Union and Turkey.

Turkey remains under a state of emergency that was imposed after a failed coup in July. The emergency allows President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his cabinet to bypass parliament when drafting new laws and to restrict or suspend rights and freedoms.

About 100,000 public sector employees with alleged links to the coup's alleged mastermind were subsequently purged from their jobs.

The HDP entered the Turkish parliament for the first time last year, when it won 59 seats and became the country's third-largest party.

It had done so after at least two people died in explosions at one of its rallies.

But just three months later, against a backdrop of rising violence between Turkish forces and the PKK, a crowd attacked the HDP's offices in Ankara.

The next day, Mr Demirtas accused the ruling party of orchestrating nationalist attacks.

Turkish politicians normally have immunity from prosecution, but this was removed from the HDP earlier this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37868441

Car bomb today in Diyarbakir:

https://www.google.se/amp/s/amp.theguar ... diyarbakir

/B

Benny wrote:Car bomb today in Diyarbakir:

https://www.google.se/amp/s/amp.theguar ... diyarbakir

/B

Turkey is a mess

Kurds have been trying to gain their freedom ever since the countries were divided 100 years ago

For most of those years Turkey has been trying to turn the Kurds into good little Turks by any means necessary - including banning Kurdish language, culture, music, dance, clothes, books, music tapes, customs, imprisoning and slaughtering countless THOUSANDS of innocent people including babies in the Dersim Massacre

Along came the PKK

The PKK's original aim was not to save Kurds from Turkish oppression but as a Marxist group their aim was to destroy wealthy Kurdish landowners and businessmen who they believed were getting rich from the hard work of others - not sure how many fellow Kurds the PKK actually killed

Anyway the PKK soon discovered that killing fellow Kurds was not a popular move - especially as Turks were already killing so many

Then the PKK became more organised and decided to fight for Kurdish rights

The PKK was started by a group of friends NOT by Ocalan

Ocalan was NOT everyone's choice the be spokesperson but being a loudmouth - was allowed to become the PKK spokesperson

Sadly, rather than unite with other indigenous groups fighting for their rights - the PKK continued to work with loony left wing and communist groups

The PKK did manage to wake Kurds up and stop them becoming Turks

It was working well until Ocalan was arrested

After his arrest Ocalan (wanting to stay alive) made friends with the Turkish regime - understandable as he is basically a coward unlike my HERO Qazi Muhammad, who gave his life for his people

Ocalan turned into a TRAITOR he worked with the Turkish government and took part in tricking the Kurdish population into believing that Ocalan had produced a plan to improve the lives of Kurds

Ocalan's famous plan was NOT his plan but a plan based on all the things the EU required Turkey to do before Turkey's application could move ahead - literally a plan to help TURKEY jion the EU

The ceasefire bought about did nothing for the Kurds but allowed Turkey to increase it's military presence on Kurdish land

The HDP were supposed to be a totally independent Kurdish Party but their leaders openly supported the PKK - not everyone in the HDP were happy with this move

Rather than supporting Kurds the HDP has also tried to encourage them to work with the vile Turkish regime

My personal opinion is that Kurds deserve their own country - the PKK should be under the control of Murat Karayılan and eventually become the army of an Independent Kurdistan

The HDP should be dissolved and a genuinely independent Kurdish political party should be formed