SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said at least 139 members of its party had been detained by the Turkish security forces.
Spokespersons of HDP Foreign Affairs Feleknas Uca and Hishyar Ozsoy said the party’s members had been detained during “anti-terror operations” carried out by the Turkish security forces in 40 provinces since February 12.
Six HDP members were detained in Bursa, 29 in Van, 13 in Aydin, 26 in Diyarbakir, 10 in Ankara, seven in Manisa, six in Mersin, 20 in Adana and 22 in Istanbul, they said in a statement.
“The political genocide operations carried out by the AKP-MHP nationalist alliance to intimidate and suppress our party still continue,” they added.
“Systematic attacks against the HDP members, administrators, and those who demand freedom, peace and justice take place almost every day,” they stated.
On Monday, the Turkish interior ministry said the security forces detained 718 people across 40 provinces over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey accuses the HDP of links to the PKK, which has waged an insurgency in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
The HDP, the third-largest in Turkey’s parliament, denies links to terrorism, yet has seen thousands of its officials and members arrested in recent years, mainly on terrorism charges.
