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Turkey's Pro-Kurdish Party Deputies Arrested

By Dorian Jones, VOA News November 04, 2016

In Turkey, 12 HDP pro-Kurdish parliamentary deputies have been detained, including its co-leaders. The deputies are held as part of anti-terror probes into the Kurdish rebel group the PKK. The arrests have provoked national and international condemnation.

Turkish police detained the 12 parliamentary deputies of the pro-Kurdish HDP early Friday. Those in custody include the party's co-leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.

All were detained for failing to testify in terrorist propaganda investigations into their activities. Demirtas, appearing in court, refused to answer questions, saying he "would not be a puppet in this trumped up judicial theater." He was arrested following his statement.

The HDP is the third-largest party in parliament and in last year's general election secured more than 10 percent of the vote.

Condemnation

The detentions have drawn swift condemnation from Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, who warned it was taking the country in a dangerous direction. Ankara has faced strong criticism from the European Union and European countries. Human Rights Watch's Sinclair Webb warns history is now in danger of repeating itself.

"We saw this in 1994, with the detention of 4 members of the Kurdish party back then," said Webb. "They then spent the next 10, nine years in jail. That set back the trajectory of parliamentary democracy very fundamentally and now we seem to have gone back to that approach. It's a recipe for disaster."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu promptly responded, calling EU leaders' reactions to the detentions "unacceptable" and accusing most EU countries of strongly backing the PKK.

"Most EU countries give very strong support to the PKK," he told reporters. "We will not accept lessons from them on the rule of law."

Many Western countries have been increasingly critical of Turkey's use of power since a state of emergency was declared after the failed coup in July. Turkey has arrested some 110,000 officials in the months that followed.

Selahattin Demitras and Figen Yiksekdag, co-leaders of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), were among the 12 members of parliament jailed Friday. Some of the lawmakers were later released.

Far-reaching consequences

Emma Sinclair Webb, chief Turkey researcher for the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, says the detentions could have far-reaching consequences.

"Detaining democratically-elected members of parliament without clear evidence of serious wrongdoing is a very fundamental assault on the right to political representation," said Webb. "The human rights consequences is very serious, we've already seen a major bomb attack in Diyarbakir, killing 8. Removing the possibility of representation and participation in political life for millions of voters has serious consequences for democracy and human rights."

Car bombs

Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, was hit by a large car bomb hours after the detentions.

Officials blamed the bombing on the Kurdish rebel group the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish State. The government accuses the HDP of being linked to the PKK, a charge the party denies.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag defended the detentions saying they were in conformity with the law. There has been a series of small protests against the detentions in several cities. But those protests have been hindered by much of social media, including Twitter and Facebook being closed or severely curtained. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the controls would remain in force until what he called "the terror threat" had passed.