Turkey detains top Kurdish party leaders, Demirtas, Yuksekdag

Turkey’s Kurdish HDP co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas (L) and Figen Yuksekdag. Photo: HDP’s FB

Published by Ekurd Daily on November 4, 2016

DIYARBAKIR-AMED, Turkey’s Kurdish region,— Turkish police on Friday detained the two co-leaders of the country’s main pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and several other MPs in a major escalation of the crackdown in the wake of a failed July 15 coup.

Selahattin Demirtas was detained at his home in the southeastern Kurdish city of Diyarbakir while the co-chairperson Figen Yuksekdag was held in Ankara as part of a terror investigation, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Their detention appeared part of a large-scale operation against the HDP, which is the third largest party in the Turkish parliament with 59 seats and the main political representative of the Kurdish minority.

Demirtas and Yuksekdag had been targeted by several separate probes over the last months but this is the first time that either has been detained.

The security operations took place after midnight, with Demirtas tweeting at 0130 local time (2230 GMT) that police had arrived at his home and he was about to be detained.

NTV television said the pair were accused of spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) while Anadolu said Demirtas was accused of provoking violence in deadly protests in October 2014.

Those detained also failed to respond to demands to give statements to prosecutors, Anadolu said.

According to the Turkish interior ministry, a total of 11 HDP MPs were detained, including the two co-leaders, NTV said.

Coordinated raids took place throughout the southeast of Turkey including the cities of Diyarbakir, Van and Bingol.

A police search was also in progress at the party’s general headquarters in Ankara.

Those detained including the prominent lawmaker Sirri Surreya Onder, who in the past has been a pointman for contacts with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The head of the HDP’s faction in the Turkish parliament, Idris Baluken, was also held.

Their detention followed a previous resolution by parliament allowing the immunity of MPs to be lifted.

Rising tensions

Two more wanted HDP MPs — Faysal Sariyildiz and Tugba Hezer Ozturk — were found to be abroad while efforts were still under way to detain two others, Imam Tascier and Nihat Akdogan, Anadolu said.

The raids come as Turkey remains under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the July 15 failed coup, which critics say has gone well beyond targeting the actual coup plotters.

Thirteen staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, including the editor-in-chief, were detained on Monday, further heightening strains in Turkish society.

Tensions have surged in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurdish region in southeast of Turkey, since a fragile ceasefire declared by the PKK collapsed in 2015.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 78-million population. A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

It has since stepped up its insurgency against the Turkish security forces, staging regular attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives among the military and the police.

The HDP seeks to promote the cause of Turkey’s Kurdish minority and defend the rights of Kurds as well as those of women, gays and workers.

The charisma in particular of Demirtas — dubbed the “Kurdish Obama” by some admirers after the US president — earned it success at the ballot box.

It also divides all its top jobs between a man and a woman, as with the party chairmanship, which is shared between Demirtas and Yuksekdag.

But the authorities accuse the party of being a front for the PKK and failing to distance itself from terror, claims it has always vehemently denied.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched repeated personal attacks on Demirtas, who analysts have seen as the sole politician in Turkey who comes anywhere near to rivalling his charisma.

Erdogan has repeatedly called for MPs from the party to face prosecution, accusing them of being an extension of the PKK.

Demirtas has made it a personal crusade to oppose Erdogan’s plan for a presidential system in Turkey, which the HDP says would lead to dictatorship.

Erdogan had earlier Thursday held talks with Devlet Bahceli, the head of the fourth largest party in parliament, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which despises the HDP and whose votes could be crucial in agreeing a presidential system.

The HDP strongly opposed the coup that aimed to unseat Erdogan but Demirtas told AFP in an interview after the putsch bid there was no contradiction in resisting both the plotters and the president.

Earlier this week Turkey has detained two Kurdish mayors of Diyarbakir, Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli, accusing them of “terrorist” activities linked to the PKK. The government appointed a local Ankara district administrator to take over Kisanak’s duties.

In September, 24 mayors in the southeast suspected of links to the PKK were suspended and replaced with officials close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by Erdogan, a move that triggered protests in several cities in the region.

Also in September Turkish authorities have stopped broadcasts of 10 mostly Kurdish language television channels.

In October, Turkish police raided the Istanbul headquarters of prominent pro-Kurdish television channel IMC TV, cutting all its transmissions while it was live on air. After Turkish pressure on Eutelsat, the French firm has suspended the broadcast of Belgium based pro-Kurdish MED Nuçe TV.

In the same month, the government suspended 11,500 Kurdish teachers suspected of links to the PKK.

Since July 2015, Turkey initiated a controversial military campaign against the PKK in the country’s southeastern Kurdish region after Ankara ended a two-year ceasefire agreement. Since the beginning of the campaign, Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews, preventing civilians from fleeing regions where the military operations are being conducted.

Observers say the crackdown has taken a heavy toll on the Kurdish civilian population and accuse Turkey of using collective punishment against the minority.

Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction to urban centres and killing Kurdish civilians. But the government says the operations are essential for public safety, blaming the PKK for the damage.