As reported by the Firat News Agency (ANF), the operation that started simultaneously at around 6.30 am on Tuesday morning was conducted in the Istanbul districts of Bagcilar, Esenyurt, Arnavutköy, Üsküdar, Beyoglu, Sisli, Gaziosmanpasa, Bayrampasa and Sultangazi.

Among the people taken into custody in Istanbul are members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Party Assembly Hülya Yer and Çigdem Kiliçgün Uçar; BDP Istanbul Provincial Executives Dursun Yildiz, Aydemir Anli, Mehmet Kaymaz and Nural Dogan; BDP Bahçelievler District Chair Faruk Tur; Gaziosmanpasa District Chair Arif Yilmaz, Arnavutköy District Chair Galip Ates, Sancaktepe District Chair Çiçek Arinç; Üsküdar District Vice Chair Mehmet Serif Mergen; Democratic Society Congress (DTK) member Hikmet Kaymaz and Kemal Aydin, Executive of the Association for Solidarity and Support of Relatives of Disappeared People (YAKAY-DER).

"Deniz is an academician who gives lessons in political sciences"

One of the persons taken into police custody in Istanbul is Deniz Zarakolu, son of publisher Ragip Zarakolu, Head of the Freedom of Publishing Committee of the Turkish Publishers Association. Deniz Zarakolu is currently doing a PhD in Political Sciences at Bilgi University.

Zarakolu was taken into custody after a police raid on his home in Tarlabasi (European side of Istanbul) on Tuesday morning. He made a name for himself with his research and translations in the field of political sciences.

Publisher Ragip Zarakolu spoke to bianet about the incident. In his opinion, his son was taken into custody because he taught "Political Sciences" and "History of Political Thought" at the political academy of the BDP.

Operations in five other provinces

31 people were taken into custody in the course of simultaneous operations in Diyarbakir, among them BDP Vice Co-Chairman Erkan Piskin, BDP Diyarbakir Provincial Vice-Chair Mehmet Aksünger, BDP Women Assembly member Fatma Kasan, Dr. Ilhan Diken and journalist Tayyip Temel, former General Publications Director and now writer of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper.

The reason for Temel’s custody has not been reported yet. He was taken to the Diyarbakir Police Directorate. The Azadiya Welat newspaper told bianet that they had not obtained any detailed information about Temel yet.

In Gaziantep 20 people were taken into custody; furthermore BDP Assistant Treasurer Salih Yildiz and BDP employee Mahmut Polat in Ankara; Derik (Mardin) District Mayor Çaglar Demirel and DTK Co-ordination Board Member and DTK Batman Spokesman Osman Akdag and Kurtalan District (Siirt) Municipality Council Member Mehmet Koyuncu.

According to the Dicle News Agency (DIHA), 771 people have been taken into police custody in the course of KCK operations throughout the past month. With yesterday’s numbers, this figure amounts to 908 people, DIHA announced.

92 People in Custody in Istanbul

Joint attorney of the BDP Sinan Zincir assessed the operation in Istanbul in an interview with bianet.

Zincir summarized that the 92 people taken into police custody on Tuesday include 14 district mayors, twelve provincial executives, seven members of the Party Assembly, almost all previous provincial executives and former Provincial Co-Chair Çigdem Uçarkiliçgün. The persons in custody are not allowed to talk to their lawyers for the first 24 hours in custody and a decision of confidentiality of the file has been decided for four days.

Zincir said that these operations were intended to "openly and clearly prevent the democratic efforts of the BDP and to break the democratic will of the Kurds".

Zincir reminded that there were only two weeks left until the provincial party congress. In the lawyer’s opinion, the actual targets of these operations were the counteracting of BDP actions and the party’s entering the parliament. (BIA, 5 October 2011)

BDP: we will not bend, should you arrest 10 thousands of us

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chair Gültan Kisanak remarked that Prime Minister Erdogan has a list of political execution which consists of thousands of people and said; “We will not knee before you even if you take 10 thousand people into custody”.

Speaking at the group meeting, BDP Co-Chair Kisanak stated that “the boycott they continued till October 1st was made to show everyone that Turkey has gone off the rails.

Kisanak called attention to the operations carried out under the name of KCK devoted to eliminate the Kurdish politics and said; “We once again faced a political slaughter when we woke up this morning. Most of the former and current executives of our party are in custody now. The AKP police is hunting Kurds.”

Kisanak pointed out that a civil and democratic constitution can’t be worked on while the clash is continuing and said that deciding on war as soon as the parliament opens means to sabotage the process of the new constitution. Kisanak added that the march to Gemlik on October 8th will be an important step to open the way for negotiations.

BDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas also reacted to the detention of more than a hundred people with house raids and detentions carried out in many provinces against the BDP last night.

Demirtas remarked that they are concerned about the Prime Minister’s political attitude that intends to make things more difficult and to destroy grounds of compromise rather than to strengthen constitutional discussions and seeks for negotiation.

Demirtas stated that the Prime Minister targets the BDP by ordering instructions around every day and added; “Our colleagues, PM members, mayors and party members are arrested every day under the name of KCK operations. If this is the KCK, I am the President of the KCK because all detainees are members of the BDP. We discuss among each other whether we can hold mature, conciliatory and solution-oriented discussions in such an environment. I hope Turkey will manage to create an environment where its constitution can be discussed intrepidly without living big political crisis but the discourse and practices of the Prime Minister don’t contribute to this process.” (ANF, October 4, 2011)
 
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