DEM party held its first ordinary congress of its youth assembly in Amed on Saturday. The event was attended by party co-Chair Tuncer Bakirhan.
Diyarbakir governor’s office said in a statement that 42 people who participated in the congress were detrained, claiming that they had “acted against the law, threw stones at the police, and resisted.”
The province’s public prosecutor’s office has launched a “judicial investigation” against the suspects, according to the governor’s office.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X, that the prosecutor’s office “has initiated the necessary judicial investigation against the suspects for the crimes of ‘praising crime and the guilty’ and ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organization,’" adding that arrest warrants have also been issued against some suspects.
The pro-Kurdish party is yet to comment on the detentions.
BBC Turkish cited a source within the DEM party that 57 individuals were detained and sent to the province’s security directorate for statements.
The arrests come as Turkey mourns the killing of 12 of its soldiers by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region.
DEM party is widely accused by its rivals within Turkey of being the political extension of the PKK.
During the congress, Bakirhan criticized the Turkish leaders for voicing solidarity with the families of the dead soldiers, saying that it was the poor who died, while none of the leaders’ children were on the frontlines.
“Those who have lost their lives are the children of laborers and the poor. They are the children of those whose homes lack the warmth of a stove and those who cannot turn on their heating due to poverty,” he said, adding that the party will bear the responsibility to resolve the Kurdish issue through democratic means.
The parliamentary group of the DEM Party in a statement on Sunday expressed their grief over the “heavy loss of lives” in the past few days and called for a “democratic and peaceful” solution that gets at the root of the problem - the “century-long unresolved Kurdish issue.”
The death of the 12 Turkish soldiers sparked outrage among the Turkish public and politicians alike. Four parties in the parliament, from both the ruling and opposition camps, signed a joint declaration condemning PKK attacks on Turkish troops, while the largest Turkish opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), called to summon Defense Minister Yasar Guler to the parliament in a session behind closed doors.
The main battlefield in the conflict has moved out of Turkey’s borders and into the north of the Kurdistan Region where both the PKK and Turkish forces have recently increased their attacks on the other. Turkey also frequently targets Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) that it says are offshoots of the PKK. Civilians are frequently caught in the crossfire.
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