DIYARBAKIR, Turkey – Turkish authorities arrested 5 officials of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Saturday in a joint operation in Diyarbakir and the capital Ankara over terrorism charges.
The Turkish police raided the houses of two advisers to the HDP MPs in the Turkish parliament over terrorism charges, one of them the adviser to the party’s co-chair Figen Yuksekdag.
This later was followed by arrests of two more HDP advisers, the party’s general adviser and another parliamentary adviser.
The police are searching for a sixth HDP official.
The HDP co-leaders and other party lawmakers were detained early last Friday as part of what the Turkish government described as a counter-terrorism investigation.
As of last Saturday nine HDP MPs, including the two co-chairs, have been remanded in custody, three were released on bond and authorities issued arrest warrants for another three. They are facing accusations of terrorism and suspected ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The incumbent Turkish government has long charged HDP with being connected with the PKK, a charge they vehemently deny.
Turkey has been fighting the PKK in a war which resumed in July 2015 after the collapse of a ceasefire brokered in early 2013.
The Friday arrests come less than a month after the co-mayors of Diyarbakir were also detained as part of a terrorism investigation.
The arrests have been condemned around the world, including by the European Union which Turkey has long pursued becoming a member of but has met with strong resistance from some EU members over its human rights record, especially since the failed July 15 coup attempt.
Turkey has dismissed or suspended tens of thousands of its civil servants since the coup which the Turkish authorities claim was orchestrated by the self-exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the German Parliament on Thursday that he will visit Ankara next week, for the first time since the failed coup.
"We must ask if the Turkish government's approach is compatible with the minimum standards of the rule of law," Steinmeier said, according to the German DW news outlet.
The German top diplomat said he will also push for stronger support for Turkey's civil society that is under pressure.
"When the existence of civil society is threatened, then democracy is also threatened," he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of HDP supporters in the neighbouring Kurdish capital Erbil staged a protest against the arrests.
Erbil and Ankara have enjoyed good relations economically and politically since the late 2000s, but the Kurdish government has also raised concerns over the arrests.
The Kurdistan Region Presidency expressed its concerns over the detention of the HDP co-presidents last Friday. It said the arrests “does not serve the stability, the political coexistence and the social stability of Turkey.”
