More than a hundred journalists, lawyers and members of NGOs have been arrested this Tuesday in several simultaneous operations by anti-terrorist police units in southeastern provinces of Turkey, with a majority Kurdish population, according to various sources.
“Some 150 people have been arrested by order of the chief prosecutor of the Republic of Diyarbakir. The operation is still ongoing,” Mehdi Ozdemir, vice president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, told the pro-Kurdish agency Amida News.
Ozdemir added that they had not been given any information about the reason for the arrests, which the offices of many lawyers had been raided and that police searches continued to be carried out in the offices of its members.
The portal Diken reported the arrest this morning of a member of the pro-Kurdish news agency Mezopotamya Ferhat Çelik and Kurdish journalists Abdurrahman Gok, Osman Akin and Kadri Esen.
Their homes were also searched, as well as those of other lawyers, pro-Kurdish politicians from the opposition People’s Democracy Party (HDP) and journalists from whom books and computers were confiscated, the portal added.
(Keep reading: French firm would sue Ministry of Defense for buying US $101 million from Israel).
“In the framework of the same file, we have learned that journalists, artists, politicians and citizens of the provinces of Diyarbakir, Batman and Urfa were arrested along with our members,” the Freedom Lawyers Association (OHD) tweeted.
Anadolu, Turkey’s official news agency reported that 110 people were detained in an operation carried out in 21 provinces against the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).
(Also read: Spain exhumes the remains of Primo de Rivera, founder of the Spanish Falange).
Türkiye is heading for legislative and presidential electionscalled for May 14, in which polls predict a drop in the popularity of the country’s president and head of the ruling AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which could put an end to his 21-year rule.
Opposition circles accuse the Executive of the Islamist AKP of increasing repression ahead of the elections.
EFE
More news
“I looked at my foot and my fingers were missing”, the drama of the mines in Ukraine
Pope Francis calls for cessation of violence and dialogue in Sudan
Lager-Sylt: how was the only Nazi concentration camp on British soil
#journalists #lawyers #NGO #activists #arrested #Turkey